Harry Potter and the Book of Ages
by The Unicorn Whisperer
Summary: Sequel to Harry Potter and the Emerald Eye. When odd questions start arising Harry starts seeing things that no one else can! Is Harry crazy, or is something else coming into play? Mystery, odd dreams, Sirius, and everyone calls Harry a lunatic!
1. The Red Dragon

**__****__****__****__**Author's Note: Here we go again, this is the most anticipated sequel to Harry Potter and the Emerald Eye.( I suggest you read that first, but you don't have to, it's just a good idea.) Harry's in for quite a year when he starts seeing things that no one else can, is it a dream? Or is he really going crazy? Questions start arising like what did Voldemort do to his victim after he killed them? This has it all; mystery, insanity, a lot of Sirius, and everyone calls Harry a lunatic at least once! ;)

Disclaimer: Not mine, J. K.'s, except what you don't recognize.

Sirius: Oh, and when Harry calls me "Sir," it's pronounced like seer, now on with the show! 

**_Harry Potter, and the Book of Ages_**

** Chapter 1: The Red Dragon**

Peopleall across England were sound asleep in their beds, their sleep peaceful, quiet, undisturbed . . . normal. Sirius Black's sleep was anything, but normal.

_Eyes like fiery coals loomed ahead, a silver dagger flashed!_

_ Wolf, stag, dog, and rat joined as one under the full moon, for the last time._

_ "If anything happens to us, you'll be there for him won't you?"_

_ "Of course."_

_ Plunging into infinite darkness, the only the constant drip-drip of rain to remind you that you were still alive._

_ Drip -drip!_

_ A drop landed on his head._

_ Drip-drip!_

_ Another drop landed on his hand._

_ Drip-drip!_

_ Wait! That wasn't rain, rain wasn't red. Then what was it? Blood? _

_ He looked up. A chalky, skeletal hand held something, a man? No, to small, maybe a boy? Whatever, it was it was covered in something, blood! _

_ The hand threw the body into the air, as if it weighed no more then a rag-doll, it spun in mid-air spraying blood everywhere, and landed several feet away from where Sirius was standing, its face hidden. _

_ Curious, Sirius went to investigate, a pool of blood_ _as thick as paint surrounded the body. He moved the boy's, for it definitely was a boy, hand that hid his face, his breath caught in his chest._

_ The pale face, the normally bright, expressive eyes were dull, the soft pink lips were an icy blue, the scar that the boy had bore since he was a baby stood out vividly on his now lifeless face. _

_ Petrified, Sirius flipped the boy over trying to stop the bleeding, but there was no blood to left stop it was all right there, around the body, on his hands . . . Everywhere._

_ He screamed._

Sirius Black jolted out of his sleep, his heart racing, breathing in huge gasps. He looked around wildly in the darkness, his eyes landed on the bed next to his where his godson slept.

Tranquil looking, and breathing softly, his dreams at least on the outside seemed normal, Harry Potter was the perfect example of what Sirius should have looked like at that time of night. 

_He's alive, he's okay, no blood, _Sirius thought as he caught his breath. _Damn dreams, just go back to sleep Black before you wake him, too._But Sirius did not go back to sleep, instead he got out of bed, glancing quickly at his reflection in the mirror as he passed it.

His not-quite shoulder length jet black hair had a few brown highlights from the sun, his handsome features were sharper then they had been when he was younger. His skin was darker then it had been when he escaped Azkaban, but still pale. His soft, deep brown eyes were still dulled a little, but it was going away. His body was still muscular, and strong, but he was still very thin. He was no longer the man he once was, physically or emotionally.

He was not so devil-may-care as he used to be, he was more sensitive to those around him. He was no longer as quick-tempered, and thought before he said anything. But he was still just as loyal as ever, and he was still Sirius Black, Padfoot, one of the famous****Marauders. 

The reason that he was so different was because he had spent twelve years in the most vile place on the face of the earth, Azkaban. Azkaban was a prison where the guards where eyeless, soul sucking fiends called Dementors. If anyone got to close to a Dementor their mind would be wiped of all happy thoughts, and left with the worst experiences of their lives. Most people went mad in Azkaban, but thanks to the fact that he was an Animagi, and could transform into a dog at will, Sirius had not. 

Looking out the window at the star studded sky, bathed in moonlight, Sirius noticed a large snowy white owl flying toward him. _Hedwig_, he thought.

Hedwig was his godson's post owl. 

To many people having a pet owl would seem strange, and unfair to the animal, but Sirius and Harry weren't like most people, they were wizards. Yes, you heard me correctly, wizards, and they weren't just your run-of-the-mill wizards either, they were special. (But I'll get back to that later.)

Why Hedwig was out tonight Sirius wasn't sure, but opened the window wider for her to enter.

She landed on his outstretched arm, and allowed him to untie a letter from around her leg. 

_To: Sirius Black_

_From: M. O. M. Department of Magical Creatures_

_Att.: Animagi Registration_

The envelope read. Disgustedly, Sirius opened it, if he saw one more Ministry of Magic envelope he was going to scream. He had received twenty to date, (this one was number twenty-one) all containing dozens upon dozens of forms to be filled out, some were about his Gringotts account, others were about giving him the money he would have made if he had not been wrongfully imprisoned for twelve years, and others were about him being formally recognized as Harry's legal guardian, and being able to raise him. Those were the kind he didn't mind spending hours filling out, since they meant that he could be finally recognized by the wizarding world as Harry's lawful guardian, and as an innocent man.

After skimming the letter, the contents of which included a test in front of the Department of Magical Creatures of how fast, smoothly he could transform, his distinct markings, and so on, he shoved it back in the envelope and tossed it onto the bed. His eyes traveled back over to Harry, who was still sleeping peacefully. 

_At least one of us can sleep, _Sirius sighed, before flopping backwards onto his bed. As he looked around the bland colored walls of the hospital wing, the events of last week played over in his head; walking in through the Forest of Souls, Harry almost dying in his arms, the race for Harry's life, the dagger plunging into his back, Harry rushing to his side fearing that he would lose his godfather forever, the Emerald Eye (a magic talisman that could do heal any wound, bring back the recently dead, and raise the Army of the Dead) healing his fatal wound, the destroying of the Eye, and ultimately obtaining his freedom. 

Then Peter Pettigrew's, the man who was responsible for Harry's parents' death and Sirius's wrongful imprisonment, last words before he was hauled off to Azkaban echoed in Sirius's mind, "Then you, Sirius Black, _will _feel the wrath of Lord Voldemort worse then any other!" **__**

****__Sirius shuddered, he knew some of the things Voldemort did to his victims and that was enough to give anyone nightmares. Out loud, the heavens' as the witnesses, Sirius made a promise to himself, "Voldemort will not hurt Harry in any way, not break one of his bones as long as I'm around, I swear." 

To puncture his statement a piercing scream echoed through the room. Sirius spun around to see Harry, once peaceful and quiet, was now thrashing about, screaming in his sleep.

"_Stop! No! Let them go! I'm the one you want! Don't kill them! Take me instead!_" Harry screamed wildly, twisting his body this way and that.

Sirius dashed to his side, trying to shake him awake.

Harry's hand shot out pushing Sirius away, it would have hit him if Sirius had not ducked. 

_When did he get so strong? _Sirius pondered, shaking Harry again, "Harry, wake up! It's only a dream! Wake up!"**__**

****__Harry's eyes shot open, looking wild and disoriented.

****__"Shh . . . It's only me," said Sirius quickly putting his hands on Harry's shaking shoulders.

Harry relaxed****almost instantly. "Sirius?" he said groggily. "What are you doing up?"**__**

****__"I could ask you the same question,"Sirius said, sitting down on the bed. 

"What was yours' about?"

"Not saying, you?" 

"Same."

Sirius laughed softly, "We _are _awful."

"No kidding," Harry said shoving his thick, black glasses on. Harry would have normally told Sirius about the dream, but this dream was different. This dream had been about his parents.

_He was tried to Voldemort's father's gravestone again, scarlet blood crept down his arm, Wormtail had just slashed it. _

_ Voldemort, reborn, stepped out of the cauldron, "Robe me."_

_Wormtail obliged, robing his master then scurrying away in a rat like way._

_ "So, Harry we meet again," Voldemort said turning around quickly, his eyes glowing devil red. "And this time you are not alone is he, Lily? James?"_

_ Harry twisted as much as he could in the constricting ropes, behind him stood his parents. His mother's red hair as fiery as Voldemort's eyes, his father's dark blue eyes cold and boring into Voldemort. They knelt beside Harry. _

_ "Mum, Dad," Harry gasped as Lily places a gentle hand against her son's cheek._

_ James flashed a small smile in spite of the dire conditions, "I've seen you play Quidditch, you're fantastic."_

_ Harry blushed, while Lily muttered, "Honestly James, no matter the danger you think about Quidditch." _

_ "Prepared to join the others, are you?" Voldemort asked silkily, bringing the Lily and James's attention away from their son._

_ "No," Lily said cooly. "As long as we remain free you can't use it again."_

_ Voldemort strode over to where the Potter family was, and tilted Lily's head up, "So beautiful, so powerful, so stupid." _

_ "I wouldn't say that again if I was you, Tom," James growled like a muzzled bear as he put a hand around on Lily's shoulder, and another on Harry's as Voldemort's eye flashed dangerously. _

_ Lily gave James a look of gratefulness, before rising to her feet, "You have a weakness Tom, your true identity, it will be your downfall."_

_ "No, Lily, it was yours'," Voldemort said softly raising his wand, c__ords constricted around Lily and James, "Harry, how would you like to see your parents die again?"_

_ Harry's eyes went wide as the graveyard transformed into a family room, his parents in each others arms. _

_ A door flew open! Voldemort! _

_ "No!" Harry screamed running front of his parents,"Stop! No! Let them go! I'm the one you want! Don't kill them! Take me instead!"_

_Voldemort pushed Harry aside,"Avada Kedavra!"_

_"You have to find it before he does!" Lily whispered to Harry before a blinding green light engulfed her._

_ "No!"_

Harry came out of his reverie by realizing that Sirius was calling his name, he raised his head to look him straight in the eye, "Huh?"

"I said are you sure you're all right? You look kind of green, and I don't mean in the eyes."

"Just tired, I guess," said Harry meekly.

Not fully convinced Sirius shrugged, and told him to try to go back asleep. Harry agreed as he eased himself under the blankets.

"Sirius?" 

"Yes?"

"When are we going to tell the Dursleys that you're free?" 

Sirius smirked, he was going to enjoy speaking to the Dursleys, he was going to have quite a fun time doing that. "Soon, very soon."

Harry knew that look, the Dursleys were in for something that one could only describe as Sirius Black. As he moved to pull the sheet closer around him Sirius grabbed his right arm roughly. "Hey!"

Sirius ran a finger down the crook of the arm where Pettigrew had taken Harry's blood to use in Voldemort rebirthing ceremony, a scar marked the spot. His solemn eyes traveled up to the night sky that had turned blood red with the rising of the sun then back down to the scar. "Oh God . . .," he gasped as a ray of red sunlight played upon the scar, the scar was in the shape of a tiny dragon. Harry was marked with a red dragon.

__

**__**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Symbols and Some Sirius Black Payback

**__****__****__****__**Author's Note: This chapter comes with an insanity warning that occurs during Dursley torture, and this is the beta-ed version. And yo Sirius!

Sirius: Who? Me?

Whisperer: Of course you! Guess what?

Sirius: What? You're insane?

Whisperer *frowning*: Nope, we get to do thank yous, drum roll, please!

*Sirius knocks on desk*

**Thank you to:** Athena Black, Atiekay, Creamy Mimi, Diana McKenzie, DumbleDore 123, harry's girl 3, Holli, Irene, Jedi Cosmos, Jedi Knight Serena, Jessica Black, Karyn Mahogany, Kcarke, Kelzery, Lin-z, lise, Oceana, rome, Seeker_2000 (Thanks!), Shadow, Shayna Black (Yes, check out Lin-z's, audiaa2's, and Iniga's fics! They are SO good!), Shadow, sweets, Tschubi-chan, vmr, and whezzel!!!!!

**Special thanks to my beta ~*Dumbledore's True Love*~ **

Sequel to Harry Potter and the Emerald Eye.( I suggest you read that first, but you don't have to, it's just a good idea.) Harry's in for quite a year when he starts seeing things that no one else can, is it a dream? Or is he really going crazy? Questions start arising like what did Voldemort do to his victim after he killed them? This has it all; mystery, insanity, a lot of Sirius and Remus, and everyone calls Harry a lunatic at least once! ;)

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including, but not limited to; Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, as well as Warner Brothers Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. 

**Chapter 2: Symbols and Some Sirius Black Payback**

Harry pulled his arm away as soon as Sirius loosened his grip on it, he looked at Sirius, who was pulling a sweatshirt over his baggy white nightshirt and jeans over his boxers. "What are you doing?"

"_We're_ doing," Sirius corrected, and tossed Harry a sweatshirt. "It's cold in the library early in the morning," he added.

Bewildered, Harry pulled on the sweatshirt, and followed Sirius to library. As they walked through the eerily quiet castle with only the shuffling of their feet to break the silence, Harry felt a strong sense of foreboding. He thought Sirius felt the same way because he kept looking this way and that searching for something, and when finding nothing wrong started to walk faster. By the time they reached the library Harry was jogging to keep up with him.

It was freezing, and still dark in the library, the air was stale and dust lay thick on the aged tomes. Sirius walked over to a section that was near the back of the library, dust rising off the floor with his every step. 

_The library all to ourselves, _Harry thought, _Hermione would love this. _

Sirius was grabbing books at random, the sort of books that Harry would never pictured his godfather reading: Symbols for the Suspicious Sort by Ichabod Crane, Chinese Emblems for the Chinese Wizard, English Version (Perfect to read while eating Fortune Cookies!), and Are You Cursed? by Loki Jinx. 

"Should I go get some noodles, and rice?" Harry asked eying Chinese Emblems for the Chinese Wizard, English Version as he sat down in an empty chair. "What are we looking for?"

Sirius gave him a perplexed look, and started rapidly flipping through the books. "Anything pertaining to dragons or scars." 

The minutes seemed to crawl by for Harry, he had no idea why Sirius was so dead set on finding whatever he wanted to find because there was a lot about dragons and scars in these books, but none of it was what Sirius was looking for. Clouds of dust rose up in their face whenever they opened or snapped shut a book. Sirius let out an anguished moan; Harry jerked his head up. 

"God, no," Sirius moaned, dropping the book he was reading, "you're marked."

"I'm what?"

"Marked with a red dragon, a sign of one who's soul is in peril," Sirius closed the book solemnly. "The mark of the damned." 

Nervously, Harry looked at the crook of his right arm, the tiny dragon seemed to glare up at him. What Aunt Petunia, and a boy had said about him years ago came back.

_"Why is my scar like this?" a five-year-old Harry dared to ask, pointing to his forehead._

_ "Because you're damned," she snapped. "And don't ask questions."_

_ The next day Harry asked one of the older students who watched his class during lunch what damned meant._

_ "It means that no one will ever like you, your parents probably abandoned you because you're bad luck!" the older student snarled. "Now go away, I don't want to be damned too." _

Slowly, Harry said in a small voice,"I'm damned."

****"Harry? What's wrong?" Sirius asked, noticing the look on Harry's face. "Wake up! Earth to Harry! Wake up!"

Eyes wide, heart racing, Harry shot up in his bed, where was he? The hospital wing? What, wasn't he suppose to be in the library? His eyes darted to his right arm, a small dragon glared up at him. "It wasn't a dream."

****__"What wasn't?" Sirius said concernedly, his normally neat hair resembled Harry's. 

"I'm damned," he whispered softly, "I'm marked with a red dragon, I'm damned."

"What red dragon?"

Harry pointed to where the scar was, but Sirius shook his head and felt Harry's forehead.

"It doesn't feel like you have a fever, do you feel okay?" 

****"Yes, of course," said Harry, puzzled. "Don't you see the scar?"

Sirius gave him a funny look. "No," he said slowly, "there isn't a scar at all."

Harry's eyes expanded, and he looked down at the scar, it was gone. It was completely gone. "Maybe I am sick," Harry leaned back on the pillows feeling apprehensive.

"Maybe, you fainted a second after I woke you up, it_ was_ odd enough," Sirius shrugged. 

"Maybe," Harry knew he had seen the dragon, why couldn't Sirius see it though? "Maybe the Dursleys were right."

"What!"Sirius snapped, his voice hard and cold.

Harry felt himself recoil muttering, "Nothing."

Sirius opened his mouth then closed it, Harry was acting strange, but he decided not to press the matter. He hmm-ed thinking very hard before a diabolical smile came over his face. 

Harry knew that look, he had seen it dozens of times on the Weasley twins, Sirius was scheming. "What's up?"

"How would you like to get _them_ back, your- I use this term loosely-relatives?"

"Definitely."

Sirius glanced to check if Madam Pomfrey was eavesdropping, she wasn't, then whispered something in Harry's ear. 

Harry nodded, "Remus in on this?"

"Of course."

~~~~~~~~~~

Harry walked past the immaculately kept front lawn of four Privet Drive and up the walk. He hoped Sirius knew what he was doing, as he rang the doorbell.****

****__A few seconds later the door was flung open, and Harry was greet with his uncle's purple-ish face. "Where have _you _been?" Without waiting for a reply Vernon Dursley dragged Harry inside the house and slammed the door closed. He turned to Harry, lifted his fat hand and brought it down on Harry's face. "What are you doing back here?" Uncle Vernon thundered. "Where have you been? Not so much as a note! Just got up and left! I won't stand for it boy! I won't!" 

Harry's face still smarted from the slap, "It was a matter of life and death," he muttered.

"A matter of life and death my eye, your life isn't worth anything to anybody. _Your _kind isn't worth the time of day, wand-waving freaks. If I had any sense I would have . . ." Vernon Dursley never finished that sentence because at that moment he heard a snarling at his feet. Looking down he saw a massive black dog, hackles rose, hair on end, inch-long fangs glistening.

With a crack like a bullwhip, the dog vanished and a man stood in its place.

"Sirius!" Harry grinned as he saw Uncle Vernon's face pale to the color of paste. 

Sirius did look intimidating, he had done some spell so that his hair looked like an elbow length tangle again, and was wearing his old Azkaban robes for an escape convict touch. "What were you saying, _Dursley_?" his voice sounded like a wolf snarling.

"I-I was . . ." 

"I thought so," Sirius's eyes darkened to black. "I'll say this once, and only once, I'm taking Harry to live with me."

Uncle Vernon seemed to break out of his daze, "Now just see here, you convict! You can't waltz in here, and-"

"I can and I will," Sirius snapped, then brought out his wand and ran a finger over it. "Any other words?"

"Yes," Uncle Vernon said slowly gathering up his courage. "I could have you arrested you know."

"Try. Right now. Try."

Vernon Dursley did try the phone number, a number his wife had kept since Black had first escaped, the phone it rang twice before a recording came on, "You have reached the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, all of our operators are busy at the moment please hold." Uncle Vernon grumbled for a moment until a someone picked up the other line.

"Hello, I'm Remus, how may I help you?"

"Wasn't this the alert line for information about Sirius Black?" Uncle Vernon spat.

"No sir, that line has been disconnected for several years."

"B-but Sirius Black is in my house right now!"

"I'm sure he is, and today we are conducting a public survey on the subject of should our fishermen be using live bait, would you like to participate?" 

"B-but!" 

"Perhaps Sirius Black might like also to participate?"

Uncle Vernon slammed down the phone in disgust. "You!" he pointed at Harry. "You had something to do with this! You and your _kind! _The world would be a better place if all of you wizards just jumped off the London Bridge really! Not to mention . . . wizard are the greatest people in the world!" Uncle Vernon finished in a high squeaky voice much like a house elf's. 

Sirius was wearing a satisfied smile, "You see what you get for bad-mouthing wizards? Now to teach you a lesson for, say about a month you will be singing our praises to the sun, the moon, and the stars."

"Sirius Black . . . you are the one of the most amazing wizards I've ever met!"

This was just too much for Harry and he started laughing like mad. 

"You think this is funny boy? The great Harry Potter thinks I'm funny! This is the most wonderful day of my life!" Uncle Vernon looked like he was about to explode from anger.

****__ Sirius threw his head back and cackled. "Harry," he gasped between laughs, "let's go get your stuff and out of this dump."

"This dump!" Uncle Vernon yelled as Harry and Sirius headed for the stairs. "Your kind . . .are always so right, this place _is_ a dump!" 

Harry and Sirius were laughing all the way to Harry's room. Once inside Harry decided to ask what Sirius had done to Uncle Vernon.

"Just what I said, for a month every time he thinks about a wizard or witch he will have to sing our praises to the sun, the moon, and the stars and any other unfortunate person who happens to be standing near-by. How's your cheek?"

"Fine," Harry tossed some clothes in his trunk. "Nice job on the voice by the way."

"Thanks, finish packing now, talk later."

Harry eagerly dashed around the room, tossing things into his trunk and then straightening them out when he noticed that his trunk wasn't going to close properly. "Done," he said satisfied. In reply Sirius raised his wand once more and flicked it. A screech can from downstairs.

"Uh oh," they said in unison and dashed downstairs to see what was the matter. 

What they saw was the most awful, most horrible thing in the world, Uncle Vernon was singing about wizards and witches. Aunt Petunia and Dudley were sitting on the couch horrified.

"They're so wonderful, so lovely! They all deserve a trophy!" he sang in a house elf-ish voice. 

"Maybe this was a bad idea," Sirius snickered. 

"Let's get out of here before he starts sprouting sonnets about us," said Harry urgently.

"Point taken," with that the trunk came floating down the stairs and landed in front of the fireplace. Sirius lit a fire, and tossed some Floo powder in it causing the flames to turn green, "See you in a second, Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" He and trunk were whisked away.

****__"Going so soon great Harry Potter?" asked Uncle Vernon sadly. "****__Please visit again, it is such an honor to have wizards such as yourself in our humble home, farewell parting is such sweet sorrow!"

"Okay," Harry said quickly, throwing a pinch of powder into the flames and shouting Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A moment later he also was whisked away by the warm emerald flames.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	3. The Welcoming Feast

Author's Rant: I was hoping to get a chapter a week out, but due to things such as: sports (my coach is obsessed with suicides, the running drill), and school (i. e. everything that comes with it), and watching The Mummy Returns more times then I can count, this chapter took longer to write then I expected. And fanfiction.net's down time, and I've been having some e-mail problems that also contributed to the wait for this chapter. 

Sirius: Contributed A LOT to the wait! 

Whisperer: Thanks, Sirius

Sirius: Anytime 

Whisperer: Anyway, your patience waiting will be rewarded with a nice long chapter. Sadly, there is a warning, I have tried, note I said tried, to write a Sorting Hat song and I'm no lyricist so if it's bad, I'm allowing you to throw rotten fruit at . . . Sirius!

Sirius: WHAT!?

Whisperer: *"Sorry, I'm on my lunch break, be back in 5 min.," sing hangs in front of the computer*

Thank you to:

007- Thanks! 

Audiaa2- This thing is bond to have more plot twists then even I can keep straight. 

Basilisk- Thank you!

Cassie- Glad you liked it 

C. p- Thanks you!

Creamy Mimi- I know, but Vernon earned it, especially after hitting Harry, and of course Sirius had to make it humorous.

~*Dumbledore's True Love*~- Thanks!!!!

Gia- Thank you! 

Golden Silence- It's okay, I'm happy you enjoyed both stories.

Kyra aku riddle- What's with all the blank reviews? 

Jedi Cosmos-- Thank you!

Jessica Black- Thank you! 

Liz- Hermione and Ron make an entrance in the chapter.

Lin-z- *grins* No prob. Thanks for reviewing!

Lonely Dove- *grins* I always seem to get my best ideas at one in the morning or at least my craziest. 

No-Name- *raises eyebrow* "Poor Dursleys"? Oh, well they did deserve it, right? Thanks for the"that was great"-s!

Oceana- The Dursleys finally got what they deserved, and in a very Sirius way.

Rainbow Fire-Thank you! 

rome-Thanks!

Sal-Thanks!

Sandra Solaria Dees- The plot bunnies are holding a convention in my brain for annoying plot twists. Hehe!

Scarlet Phoenix- Only time will tell 

Seeker_2000- *grins* More insanity to come!

Shadow- Just image Vernon Dursley at work growling about wizards and then singing something along the lines of, "I love wizards!" 

Shayna Black- No problem

summersun- Thanks! 

sweets- Vernon Dursley can't sing to save his life, poor Harry and Sirius. They 

Tschubi-chan- Oh, Sirius did better then a punch, here's some inside information for everyone; Vernon Dursley during an important convention yelled, "Wizards rock my world!" He then rushed out of the building screaming! *crackles* Thanks! Glad you like The Flu and All in The Family!

vmr-Thank you!

Von- Hehe! I don't think that Sirius would let Uncle Vernon do that to Harry, though.

Special thanks to my beta ~*Dumbledore's True Love*~ 

Sequel to Harry Potter and the Emerald Eye.( I suggest you read that first, but you don't have to, it's just a good idea.) Harry's in for quite a year when he starts seeing things that no one else can, is it a dream? Or is he really going crazy? Questions start arising like what did Voldemort do to his victim after he killed them? This has it all; mystery, insanity, a lot of Sirius and Remus, and everyone calls Harry a lunatic at least once! ;)

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including, but not limited to; Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, as well as Warner Brothers Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. 

Chapter 3: The Welcoming Feast

Harry spent the rest of the summer at Hogwarts, which became one of the most enjoyable of his life. He was allowed to do whatever he liked, but Dumbledore drew the line at blowing up the castle. The castle itself held more twists and turns, and interesting places then Harry had ever realized. Once he had fallen through a trapdoor, and ended up in the teacher's lounge much to displeasure of the Hogwarts' janitor, Argus Filch, since he had smeared grime all over the polished hardwood floor when he had landed. 

Today, he was outside practicing Quidditch moves, he did a loop-da-loop then shot into the sky just as he finished the circle. When he came out of his ascent he was high above the clouds, lazily he glided off toward the Forbidden Forest. A small red speck caught his eye, another wizard on a broom. He headed toward it, cautiously, not sure if it was friend or foe.

It waved at him!

He flew a little faster, it was almost like the speck was magnetically drawing him to it. He was pushing the Firebolt faster than ever now. The speck still wasn't getting any closer, what was up? The speck itself wasn't moving, Harry added more speed, his eyes never leaving the speck. He had lost control over his body now, all he wanted to do was get to that speck. Faster, he willed the broom. Faster.

A flash of black!

"Ahh!"Harry jerked the broom up to avoid hitting his godfather, who had popped up out of no where. He did a complete circle to slow himself down, he stopped into front of Sirius.

Sirius had his arms crossed over his chest, and was looking at him sternly, "New hobby? Flying headlong into trees?"

Confused, Harry looked past Sirius, a thick tree trunk was behind him, if he had crashed into it he might have cracked his head open. "Whoops."

"Whoops? Weren't you paying attention?"

Harry didn't answer, the truth was he hadn't seen the tree at all, it hadn't been there a second ago, had it? He didn't know, he had only been looking at the speck. He directed his eyes toward the broom Sirius was using, an old Nimbus1500, it was a pretty temperamental broom, only very good 7th year flyers used it but usually got thrown off. "You played Quidditch?"

"That isn't the subject."

"You did then," said Harry knowingly.

Sirius shot him a "how-do-you-know-this-stuff?" look.

"Well, you're handling that broom very well, and you haven't been hurled to the ground yet, no one can do it without any formal training, so what position?" 

"Beater," Sirius sighed, "now back to the subject at hand-"

"Did you play on the same team as my dad? Were you good? How long have you been playing? Why didn't you tell me? Have you ever flown that broom before?" Harry rambled senselessly. "Would you play a quick game? Please?" 

Sirius bobbed his head, taking careful note of each question as Harry rambled, "Yes, I was okay you're a lot better then I'll ever be, since I was young, you never asked, not in a long time, and of course."He gasped for breath, "All done? No more questions?"

"Just one, can we start now?"

"If you want to," said Sirius.

In response Harry sped off toward a goal post. Sirius followed, he had given up on asking Harry why he was speeding headlong into a tree, and summoned a practice Snitch from the ground that Harry had been using earlier. "Ready?" 

"Born ready." 

Sirius released the practice Snitch, and shot after it, Harry right beside him. Dozens upon dozens of loop-da-loops, dives, feints, and barrel rolls later Harry spotted it lingering near a tree branch. Nonchalantly, he flew towards it, checking to see that Sirius wasn't watching him, then shot after it. 

Wind whipping against his face, Harry dived for the Snitch. The small golden ball streaked off toward the left side of the field to avoid capture, but the Firebolt could just about match the Snitch's speed. Making a wild grab for it, he felt to cold metal of the ball in his hand. "Game, set, match," Harry said triumphantly, still grasping the Snitch.

Sirius blinked twice, "Whoa, I didn't even see the Snitch, not bad Harry, not bad at all."

Harry blushed at the raw pride he heard in Sirius's voice, "I . . .er . . . I'm not that great."

"Yes you are, and no digging for complements," Sirius smirked. "So school starts tomorrow, huh?"

Harry groaned, "Already?" 

"I thought you liked school."

"Well, sort of, but I could do without Potions or Divination."

"Point taken."

The sun was setting when they finally landed and dismounted from their brooms. Harry raised his eyes to the sky, a blaze of color, as young blackbird flew by. What Harry wouldn't have given to be that bird, wild and free having no idea about the danger that lurked on Earth at this very moment. A war was brewing with himself as the symbol of a victory like a flag or banner. He was trapped in the middle of it all.

He sighed, "Sirius?"

"Umm?"

"What are you going to do now that school's starting?"

Sirius smiled mysteriously, "You shall see. You shall see."

~~~~~~~~

September first dawned the start of a new school year, all the professors were back with the exception of Hagrid and the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor whom Harry had not seen yet, and the school was bustle of activity. Cleaning spells being shot here and there, Peeves dirtying the places that had just been cleaned, and McGonagall yelling at him for doing it.

Harry, who had been thrown, literally, out of his bed that morning, had seen neither Sirius or Remus all day which was strange since at least one of them always had their eye on him. Although he had had a nasty run-in with Snape which involved scarab skeletons being dropped everywhere. 

"Potter! If you think just because your good-for-nothing godfather is here that you can do whatever you like then-"

"Hello Professor Dumbledore," Harry said sweetly as the Headmaster passed. 

"Hello Harry, not causing too much trouble are you?" Dumbledore's eye twinkled as Harry shook his head slightly. "Good, Severus would you come with me for a moment."

"Yes Headmaster," Snape followed Dumbledore off toward the dungeons, allowing Harry an escape route the other way.

In search of Sirius or Remus, Harry headed down the Defense corridor. No one had cleaned it yet so Harry figured that no one would be there, as he turned to leave he heard someone shout, "Duck!"

Instinctively, Harry dropped to the ground as a pearly white cleaning spell shot over his head transforming to dingy corridor into a pristine one. Harry rose to his feet, and turned to see who had cast the spell.

A wiry man about Remus's height with dark brown hair and slate grey eyes clad in Hogwarts' teacher's robes stood before him. "Not bad reflexes," he said with a hint of an Irish accent. "I'm the new Defense professor by the way, Davey Gudgeon."

At the sound of the name, Harry remembered Remus mentioning it once, something about a Davey Gudgeon almost losing an eye while trying to touch the Whomping Willow. He looked at Gudgeon's face, sure enough along the outside of the right eye, running from the edge of the eyebrow to the soft skin under the eye, was a thin scar in the shape of a crescent moon.

"Pleased to meet you," Harry said politely. 

A thin smile crossed Gudgeon's face, "If you don't mind me asking, I always thought students weren't allowed here during the summer holidays, so why are you here?"

Harry bit his lip, "Er . . ."

"Harry! Would you help me with these!" shouted a voice muffled by the several cardboard boxes in front of his face.

Glad for the person's impeccable timing, Harry excused himself to go help the him. "What's in here?" 

"No idea," the person, Remus, said as Harry took the boxes he gave him. "What are you doing down here anyway."

"Escaping Snape."

"In trouble before school starts, Sirius would be proud," Remus muttered. "I spent half my life figuring out how many detentions he has gotten, at least five hundred."

"Still hanging around with the murderer, Lupin," said Gudgeon coldly.

Remus brought his head up sharply, "Davey, what are you doing here?"

"Same thing you are," Gudgeon held his wand tightly, "This time I won't be accepting any of your dares." He turned on a heel, and disappeared down the corridor.

Sighing, Remus said, "He could always hold a grudge."

"Grudge?"

"Remus, we need those boxes down here!" squeaked tiny Professor Flitwick. 

"Coming," Remus grunted adjusting the boxes. "I swear this is Filch's list on what things aren't allowed in the school, unabridged."

Harry laughed, settling the boxes in his arms, "I wouldn't be surprised."

Whilst, Harry, and Remus were dropping off the boxes in the Great Hall, Sirius came running in yelling, "The hardware is marching again!"

"What?!" Harry and Remus asked in unison.

Before Sirius could reply shouts came from behind the doors. They were thrown open half a second later, and at least a dozen suits of armor marched in, thundering,"Left! Right! Left! Right!"

"Sirius Black, what have you done this time?!" McGonagall snapped hotly as she watched the suits of armor march around the Great Hall.

"I didn't do it!" said Sirius quickly, stepping behind Harry.

McGonagall sighed heavily, "I have no idea what Dumbledore was thinking," then she turned toward the suits, who's captain was using poor Professor Flitwick as a banner. "HALT! Back to your stations this instant, and put Ambrose down!"

The suits of armor skidded to a halt, turned, dropped Flitwick to the floor, and marched out of the Great Hall. 

Sirius ran a hair through his hair sheepishly, "I always wondered what Flitwick's first name was."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Donning his school robes, Harry headed down to the Great Hall for the Welcoming Feast. Eager to see Ron, and Hermione he decided to wait for them near the oak doors. He did not have long to wait, soon enough the two doors were flung open and a flash of red and brown running toward him.

"Harry!!!!!!" Ron and Hermione screamed as they hugged him.

"Sirius is free!" Ron yelled.

"Have you talked to him?" Hermione asked, a prefect badge pinned to her robes.

"It was all over the Prophet! Have you seen him?"

"Where have you been all summer?"

"You forgot to write!"

"Have you been here all summer?"

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Guys, calm down," Harry laughed. "Yes I know Sirius is free, I had something to do with it, I had very interesting summer, sorry about not writing, and just part of it."

"What do you mean by interesting?" said Hermione, knowing that by interesting Harry really meant dangerous.

"Ever heard of the Emerald Eye?"

"Yes," they said in unison. 

"It's not just a legend," Harry said, lunching it the tale of his summer adventures, and also adding the part about how Sirius cursed Uncle Vernon.

"H-he d-didn't!" Ron gasped, trying not to laugh.

"Before we left Uncle Vernon was sing a lovely, NOT, song about how great wizards are," Harry said holding back his own laughter.

This proved too much for Ron, who fell to the floor laughing until tears came to his eyes, and even Hermione joined in.

"But he could have really gotten in trouble for it," she reminded them. 

"Hermione! He's Sirius Black, he was one of the Marauders, the guys who Fred and George idolize and mind they have done stuff worse then what Sirius did to the Dursleys," Ron scolded.

Harry quickly asked what Fred and George had been up to.

"You'll never believe it, they bought me dress robes! I don't where they got the money but they did, and they got a ton of other stuff too."

"Like what?" Harry smiled slyly, last year he had given the twins his winnings from the Tri-Wizard Tournament, one-thousand Galleons.

"Well, for mum they got-"

Hermione cut him off by saying that they better go to the Great Hall before they were trampled on. Grudgingly, Harry and Ron agreed and they headed for the Great Hall.

They gasped when they entered the Hall; it looked even more magnificent then ever, the four house banners and the school banner shown vibrantly from their customary walls, the golden silverware gleamed in the light that the thousand candles provided from all around the Hall. The enchanted ceiling was an ebony black, and the stars twinkled merrily.

Harry looked up at the staff table; Dumbledore, Flitwick, Sprout, Trelawney, Snape, and Gudgeon were already seated, but he noticed that there an extra seat that had never been placed there before.

"Is that the new Defense professor?" asked Ron, pointing at Gudgeon.

"Yeah," Harry said, thinking about had happened earlier. "I think-"

"Harry, old boy!" Ron's seventeen- year-old twin brothers who were entering their seventh and final year at Hogwarts, Fred and George came hurrying over grinning their heads off. "Come with us," they each grabbed one of his arms and dragged him out of the Hall. 

"What?" Harry asked as soon as they had let go of his arms. 

Fred and George traded identical grins before Fred said, "Since this is the last Welcoming Feast we'll ever see we are going to make it memorable. George?"

"Yes, we are planning to blow up the Hall!" 

"What?!"

"Well, not the Hall per say but you'll see, during the feast we'll give you a signal then duck under the table, and you won't be hurt. And don't tell anyone about this," Fred warned. 

"All right," agreed Harry, having no idea what Fred and George were up to.

"Better get back to the Hall, don't want to miss our last Sorting Ceremony," George brushed away some fake tears.

"It's too sad," Fred sobbed into Harry's robes.

Harry rolled his eyes, as he heard McGonagall explaining the Sorting Hat to the new first years. "Come on you two or we'll all miss it."

"Quite right, let's go."

With that Harry, Fred, and George rejoined Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor table, just in time to hear the aged Sorting Hat sing;

Oh, I may look old, and tattered,

but what I look like does not matter.

For it is I who decides what house,

You ought to be a part!

How about good old Gryffindor?

Where den the stout of heart?

Not, your cup of tea? 

How about proud Ravenclaw?

Where the sharp and clever are sure to be.

Still not right? There's always faithful Hufflepuff,

where the kind and caring dwell, and are made of tough stuff!

And let's not forget Slytherin,

A house for the cunning it has always been.

Don't worry, I have never yet been wrong,

And I do believe it's time to end this little song.

So pop me on your head, a few minutes is all it takes,

To enter a house where great friends, you are sure to make! 

The Hall burst into a thunderous applause at the end of the song, as the hat hopped around on its stool, bowing to each table. 

McGonagall began calling the frightened first years up to be sorted, "ALLEN, AMBER!"

A tall girl with light red hair detached herself from the gang of first-years, and placed the Sorting Hat on her head.

"RAVENCLAW!" the hat declared a moment later. Allen, Amber hurried over to the cheering Ravenclaw 

Harry spotted Cho Chang, a pretty sixth-year Ravenclaw that he had had a crush on since third-year, and a wave of guilt passed over him. Last year Cho's boyfriend Cedric Diggory had competed along with Harry during the Tri-Wizard, and during the Third task both Cedric and him had been transported to a graveyard where Harry had witnessed Lord Voldemort had been reborn and Cedric's murder.

"O'CONNELL, ALEXANDER!" (A/n: I couldn't resist :) brought Harry out of his reverie.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The sandy blonde headed boy rushed over to the applauding Gryffindor table.

"Where's Hagrid?" Hermione said scanning the Staff's table.

"Don't know, I haven't seen him since I've been here, you think he went to visit the giants?" whispered Harry.

"Maybe, oh good only two left, then we can eat."

"Is all you think about is food, Ron?" Hermione asked.

"Yes."

Harry sighed, as he watched the last two being sorted. 

"Finally," Ron breathed as Wade, Dennis became a Slytherin. 

Dumbledore stood up, and a wave of silence swept through the crowd; "Welcome to a new school year. I have been told to remind you that the Forbidden Forest is still forbidden to all the student body, and magic should not be used in the corridors between classes. Also Mr. Filch asked me to tell you to please keep the chronic prank playing down to a minimum," he looked at the Weasley twins. "And I would also like to present our three new professors that will be joining our staff. First, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Professor Gudgeon, who we sincerely hope will be with us for more then a year."

There was respectable applause for Gudgeon as he stood up, he bowed briefly then returned to his seat.

"It is my sad duty," Dumbledore continued. "That Hagrid will not be with us this school year, (Harry was sure he heard faint clapping from the Slytherin table at this news) he is away on certain business that I am afraid I cannot go into detail about. So filling his place, I am most pleased to welcome back an old favorite of ours, Professor Lupin." Remus stood up meekly.

A thunderous applause and cheers greeted him, and a large part of the students, including Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the rest of the Gryffindors, stood up. By the time the Hall had settled down Remus's face had turned crimson. 

"And we have one more Care of Magical Creatures' teacher who will be helping Remus, I am proud to present to you one of the brightest students to ever graduate from Hogwarts, 

Sirius Black."

An unnatural hush fell across the Hall as if from thin air appeared Sirius at the empty chair at the Staff Table. Several people, including Harry gasped, either at his entrance or at the idea that Dumbledore had actually hired a former fugitive to teach them Care of Magical Creatures. What surprised them even more was when he smiled, as if all trances of Azkaban were gone from him. 

Slowly, everyone started to started to applaud.

Sirius bowed with a showman's flair, then sat down, catching Harry's eye.

Harry mouthed, "Why did you tell me?"

He smirked back, mouthing, "It was a surprise."

Harry sighed, and gave him a reassuring smiled.

"Sirius is teaching Care of Magical Creatures?" Ron said in disbelief, "Dumbledore has finally gone off his rocker."

Dumbledore added one more thing,"Finally before we dig into our mouth-watering feast, I only have to touch on one more note, Vamos comer. Thank you." He sat down as food appeared upon all the tables. Midway through the feast Fred and George gave Harry a little wave and a nod.

Harry intentionally knocked his fork off the table muttering, "Whoops," he ducked below the table the same time the Weasley twins did. Below the table he heard the sound of silverware clattering, people talking, elbows knocking against the wood, and then- 

BOOM! 

SMASH! 

FLOP!

BOOM! 

"ARGH!" 

"WHAT THE--?!"

CRASH!

"What did you do?" Harry whispered, "what is that?"

"Nothing much," said George, "just all the food and plates exploding."

"Oh, that's all? Here I thought it was something serious."

"WEASLEY! WEASLEY!" McGonagall bellowed.

"And Harry," Fred sniggered.

"POTTER!"

"Thanks Fred."

"And now for our grand entrance,"they each grabbed one of Harry's arm, and dragged him off. 

Above the table, most of the students were either terrified, or laughing their heads off, and everything was being covered in food. As soon as the commotion had come to a lull, McGonagall bellowed, "Harry Potter! George Weasley! Fred Weasley! Front and center this INSTANT!!!!"

"As you wish," called a voice from above, and everybody looked up to see Harry, and the twins jumping down from the massive chandelier. They landed, and bowed like circus performers' accepting their applause.

"After. The. Feast. My. Office." she hissed dangerously.

"Yes, ma'am," the trio muttered, walking back to their seats, ironic grins plastered on their faces.

Dumbledore sighed, "So much for our futile attempt at keeping your pranks to a minium, Misters Weasley and Mister Potter. Any other things we should know about?" 

To puncture Dumbledore's question several windows were thrown open. Thinking this was a part of the prank everyone looked at Harry, Fred and George for an explanation, but their faces remained blank. Their eyes, like everybody else's were raised to the windows. A dead silence descended upon the Hall, only interrupted by the drip-drip of fallen mash potatoes, and the flapping of . . . wings?

In through the windows like a bats out of hell flew the most grotesque things many had ever seen. With metal-studded wings as black as the night itself that slashed the ceiling, flew birds with the faces of hags with snaky hair, red hot eyes, yellow teeth, and their mouths and noses had been welded together to form a beak sharp enough to spear through a man's heart and rip it out whole. Down they dived, aiming to wipe the flesh off their victim's bones. They were Furies.

"Pandoris!" shrieked two voices, Dumbledore and Sirius.

Like a giant cubed spider web chords of purple surrounded the students and the professors, the moment one Fury touched the web thousands upon thousands of small scaly lizard like creatures swarmed up, and wiped the Fury of its flesh leaving only a bare skeleton. Soon only one Fury remained, and it had it's prey picked out, Sirius Black. 

It shot at him, she would not be killed. Black had lapsed in protecting himself, the idiot. Her deadly beak was only a few yards away from his neck.

"Sirius, LOOK OUT!" Harry yelled.

Just in time Sirius ducked to avoid the Fury's deadly beak. The Fury turned for another try. "Pandoris!" Sirius yelled, and purple light exploded from the end of his wand, wiping the flesh from the Fury and shattering its skeleton.

"Search the castle, leave no room unchecked, no dark corner forgotten!" Dumbledore bellowed, "make sure they are all gone! Kill any that aren't! Mr. Dawson and Ms. Johnson you're in charge!" The Head Boy and Girl rushed to the front as the professors ran out different doorways.

A din broke out in the Hall the second the doors had been closed, while Dawson, a Hufflepuff, and Angelina Johnson, a Gryffindor who was a Chaser on the Quidditch team, tried to calm them down, but to no avail.

A half an hour later the professors returned with the news that no Furies were found. Dumbledore told the students they could return to their common rooms, since no one felt like eating much anymore. Harry raised his head to catch Sirius's eye to find out what had happened, but Sirius avoided them. 

Wearily, Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way out of the Great Hall, and up to the Gryffindor common room. They bid farewell as the ascended their separate staircases. 

Harry groaned when he remembered that he was suppose to meet McGonagall after the feast, finally deciding that his punishment could wait until morning. 

Ron said goodnight as he climbed into bed.

"Night," Harry replied as he pulled back his covered to see a singed scrap of parchment on his pillow, written in green ink. Hesitantly, he picked it up to read it;

Thanks to your worthless godfather and that buffoon of a headmaster 's quick thinking you and your little friends have escaped my minions for now.

Remember this, I will soon hold all of my enemies power in the palm of my hand.

Pleasant dreams, Potter, for they may be your last.

Lord Voldemort 


	4. School Days

Author's Note: How many people saw Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone the first day it came out?

Sirius: She did. *points to Whisperer*

Whisperer: Er, besides me that is. Anyway, I really liked it, the chess match was great, I loved Quidditch, the tension before they showed Voldemort was great, Oliver Wood was great, Ron was too, Hagrid was perfect ("I shouldn't have told yeh that." Hehe! Poor Hagrid), Hermione was good, and of course Harry was great. 

Sirius: What about my bike? How did my bike look?

Whisperer: Very nice Sirius. There was only one little thing I didn't like, I really didn't like the way they did James. They showed him in the mirror of Erised, and in the photo album, and I just didn't like the way they did him. He didn't look mischievous at all he looked like a salesman really, and as J. K. states he and Harry look uncannily alike, aside from the glasses, and the hair color, I don't think they looked very much alike. But over all I really liked the movie, and I will be seeing it about 5 more times.

Sirius: Now that our movie review is over can we get back to the subject at hand?

Whisperer: WHOA! Sirius actually wanting to be on topic, this is a first. 

Sirius: *sighs* Fine, I'll do the thank-yous, disclaimer, and everything else.

Whisperer: Why thank you Sirius!

Sirius: I'm such a softy. Anyway, before people start running at us armed with sharp, pointy object here me out! When the Whisperer originally wrote this chapter it took up 20 pages!

Then she read it through, and realized that she was cramming way too much information in one chapter so she cut it in half, and then had to do some clean up work, and that's why this took so long.

Mega-thanks to my beta-reader ~*Dumbledore's True Love*~, she rocks! She put up with all my crazy ideas, and off-topic-ness, and didn't kill me when I decided to split the chapter. Everyone applaud her! *claps* Better yet, go read her stories (which also rock), and review them.

Thank you to the terrific people who reviewed: vmr, Sandrine Black, sweets, Gia, kyra aku riddle, summersun, Lavender Ice, sweets, Tschubi-chan, Zapper (a fellow METMA, yay!), Shayna Black, Rainbow Fire, Sophie W., Audiaa2 (I completely agree), 2 many 2 mention (I won't leave you hanging, I promise), Jessica Black, Clara, Jocelyn Magus (you put my petty little fanfiction next to some of the greatest, if not the greatest, books of all time? You rock! I'm on cloud nine right now, and won't be leaving it for a long time), RicaSieg, MajesticAngel, and Clue! 

Sequel to Harry Potter and the Emerald Eye.( I suggest you read that first, but you don't have to, it's just a good idea.) Harry's in for quite a year when he starts seeing things that no one else can, is it a dream? Or is he really going crazy? Questions start arising like what did Voldemort do to his victim after he killed them? This has it all; mystery, insanity, a lot of Sirius and Remus, and everyone calls Harry a lunatic at least once! ;)

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including, but not limited to; Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, as well as Warner Brothers Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. 

  
  


Chapter 4: School Days  
  
Like lightning, Harry grabbed the scrap of parchment, pocketed it, and raced off to tell Dumbledore. He followed the familiar path to the stone gargoyle that guarded the entryway to Dumbledore's office. Harry started to give it the password when it opened from inside and Sirius walked out.  
"Harry?" he blinked once, "what are you doing still up?"  
"This was, er . . . left for me, I think you and Dumbledore better look at it," Harry extracted the letter from his pocket, handing it to Sirius.  
Sirius unfolded it, glanced at it, and raised his eyebrows briefly, before folding the parchment back up, "Very funny, Harry, but an encore to tonight is not needed at the moment."  
"What?" Harry frowned.  
"What is it? A mini-Marauder's Map?" Sirius tapped the parchment with his wand saying, "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good." He unfolded the parchment again, frowned, refolded it. "Okay, then what is it?"  
Harry said, "Don't you see it?"  
"See what, Harry?"  
"What's written on the parchment."   
Sirius put a hand on Harry's forehead feeling for a fever, there was none. "Harry, are you feeling all right?" There was genuine concern in his voice.  
"Yes," Harry said confused.  
Sirius opened the folded scrap of parchment, and handed it to Harry. Harry took it from him, and his eyes went wide; on the parchment was no longer the letter, but nothing.   
"B-but . . . w-what . . .?" Harry stammered, blinking his eyes several times as though if he blinked enough the message would appear again.   
"What was it?"  
"Voldemort sent me a message, he sent those hag-bird thingys, it said that . . . that . . ." But Harry couldn't remember, the message had been wiped from his memory just like it had been wiped from the parchment.  
Sirius sighed, he saw the look of sheer astonishment in Harry's face, he knew this wasn't a joke. "I'll check it out, now go back to bed, you have a long day tomorrow."  
"Can't I--"  
"No sorry, school tomorrow, scoot,"Sirius said turning him around and nudging him in the direction of Gryffindor common room.

Harry yawned, "I'm going, I'm going. G'night Sir."  
''Night, Harry," Sirius muttered looking at the parchment, a shiver of apprehension ran down his spine. It's just a piece of parchment, Sirius, he scolded himself, nothing more, nothing less. Satisfied with his answer, Sirius started to head down the hall, then stopped. He turned on a heel, and stomped back from whence he came, "Oh, to blazes with it! Sugar Quills."   
The gargoyle jumped aside.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~  
The next morning, Harry awoke to the sounds of birds singing, but to him it was more like squawking. "Shut up, will ya?" he snapped irritably at the birds.  
"C'mon Harry, you got to wake up sometime," Ron said huskily.  
Groaning, realizing that his chances of obtain those coveted extra five minutes where slim to none, Harry rolled out of bed, kicking away his sneakers so that he would actually have some standing room. "Where is everybody?"  
"Breakfast, where I'd like to be,"said Ron meaningfully.  
"All right, all right, I'm up, I'm getting dress," Harry fumbled for his glasses, found them, grabbed his robes, and headed into the bathroom to get changed. He emerged a few minutes later, fresh, clean, and ready for a new day. "Happy?"  
"Thrilled," Ron stated as they left the dorm.  
Breakfast was a noisy affair. Harry and Ron took their customary seats next to Hermione who was reading a thick textbook.  
"Here are your schedules," she handed them their schedules not taking her eyes off her book.  
A strange look came over Ron's face as he scanned the Monday column of his schedule. "YES!" he screamed.  
The whole table stopped what they were doing to look at him. Ron's face reddened, as he pointed to the second box in the first column marked; Joint Care of Magical Creatures--

Ravenclaws.  
Harry grinned, "Sirius and Remus."  
"Of course," Hermione said, "the Slytherins must be overjoyed."  
"But we still have Herbology with the Hufflepuffs," Harry whispered sullenly.  
Ron, and Hermione traded looks, spending classes with the Hufflepuffs was going to hard for Harry this year, and Herbology being the first class of the year didn't help.

A flapping of wings caused them to raise their heads to the ceiling, the owls burst in through the now-repaired windows. Harry noticed that Hedwig had something in her beak, but flew not to him, but to Sirius. More Ministry papers, Harry thought as he saw Sirius frown at the seal. 

"What's that?" Ron said pointing to the letter Sirius was showing Remus.

"Dunno," Harry shrugged. "Probably about his Animagi registration or something like that."

"What's involved in those things anyway?" Hermione asked, curiously.

"Wait!" Ron yelled, clapping a hand to his forehead. "Hermione Granger does not know about something? The world is coming to an end!"

"Oh shut up, Ron," Hermione sighed, "and for your information the Animagi registration test used to a top secret, and even though now there are books written about it they're very hard to find." 

"We have to do some paper about Animagi for the O. W. L.s?" guessed Harry.

Hermione smiled like the cat who ate the canary, "Guilty."

"Hermione!" Ron groaned, running a hand through his hair, exasperated.

Hermione gave him a look, Harry sensing an argument quickly said, "Oh! Look at the time! We're going to be late for class, let's go!" He grabbed the backs of his friends' robes, and dragged them out of the hall, and down to the greenhouses.

When Harry got there he felt his courage weakening, how could he spend the first class with th Hufflepuffs? How could he spend any classes with the Hufflepuffs? 

Noticing this, Ron slung an arm around Harry's shoulders, and practically pushed him into greenhouse number five. 

The Hufflepuffs were already seated when they arrived. They all stared at Harry with hard, cold eyes. Harry walked slowly to his seat, their eyes seemed to be boring into his back

as he walked. Professor Sprout walked in looking her usual self with her hat askew upon her flyaway hair. 

"Today we will be going over what we have learn in the past four years, hopefully some of what I've said has stayed in your head, and not gone in one ear and out the other,"she said handing out folders full of study sheets for the Herbology O. W. L. "Now can anyone tell me which plant's pus can cure various forms of acne?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Forty-five minutes, and many questions later, Harry, Ron, and Hermione gladly left the stifling greenhouse, staggering slightly under the weight that the folder had added to their bags.

They had made their way up the hill to the paddocks, Sirius was already there, leaning against the fence, he seemed to be preoccupied by the smudge of mud on his boot.  
"Siri-- Professor?" Hermione asked.  
Sirius raised his eyes to her, "Hey, you're early."  
Ron grinned, "You switched it, didn't you?"  
"Switched what?"  
"We don't have this class with the Slytherins this year," Ron explained. "You set it up that way, didn't you?"  
"And if I did?"  
"Where's that teacher of the year award?" Ron started pulling out his pockets pretending to be looking for an award, not noticing that the rest of the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws had joined them.  
Sirius laughed lightly, putting the nervous students at ease. "I'm honored Ron, but I'm going to have to refuse it, I have to at least teach a lesson first." He straightened up, and adopted a no-nonsense tone of voice, "All right, seeing that everyone is here we can begin; this will be a practical lesson so leave your bags here. Professor Lupin is with your assignment, so come with me." They hesitantly followed Sirius. While they walked, Parvati Patil tapped Harry on the shoulder.  
"Yes?" he said turning around.  
"This might sound rude, but . . . is he really innocent?" implored Parvati, while Lavender gave him a "like-seriously?" look.  
"Of course," Harry said, realizing that Sirius's freedom meant nothing to the rest of the world, they still thought he was as guilty as sin. "And, yes I trust him," he added sharply.  
Parvati shrugged with a "Sheesh-it's-only-a-question" air.  
Harry started to walk faster to catch up with Ron and Hermione. He watched as Sirius lead them across a field to another paddock that Remus was standing in, surrounded by furry black things that looked like puppies.  
"Aww!" several of the girls squealed when they saw the puppies, and some of the boys grinned.   
"So," Sirius said, "does anyone know what they are?"  
"Puppies?" some people said.  
"Not exactly."  
"They're magical dogs aren't they?" Hermione said, thinking hard.  
"Yes," Sirius nodded. "They're Pookas."  
"Oh, aren't they suppose to be sprites that take the form of black dogs?" Hermione rattled off.  
"Exactly," Sirius opened the gate for Remus, and signaled for the class to wait. As Remus hurried out, all the puppies turned to look at the new people, yapping playfully.   
"Cute, huh?" Remus asked closing the gate behind him as one rouge puppy made a try for freedom. Sirius caught the pup, and placed it back in the paddock.  
Most of the class agreed. Harry noticed that everybody was starting to warm to Sirius.   
"Good, because each of you will be taking care of one of them for the year. As in your Pooka will follow you everywhere," Remus told them gesturing to the Pookas.   
"But for what?" Terry Boot, a Ravenclaw questioned.  
"For your O. W. L.s exam, they are a part of it," Sirius said, "each puppy will spend the year in your care, and depended on how it is raised, trained, etc. will be half of the exam. Sprites are very difficult to harm so don't worry about it dying on you, it's not a goldfish."  
An excited chatter broke out within the crowd at this new assignment.  
"Class," Remus said, recapturing the class's attention. "We will be giving you some information on Pookas, and----"  
"This means homework doesn't it?" Neville Longbottom sighed.  
"Yes Mr. Longbottom, one roll of parchment on taking care of Pookas, that's all. Aside from that all you have to do is be chosen by a Pooka," Remus opened the gate.  
Without delay, everyone entered the paddock anxious to meet the Pookas, the puppies raced up to the teenagers. Harry hung back to speak with Sirius, "Hey, how's it going, Professor Black?"   
"Pretty good, we don't have the Slytherins until Thursday so we're safe," Sirius whispered watching the class. "And you don't have to call me professor all the time."  
"Nah, it's entertaining."  
"Yeah, sure, whatever," Sirius smirked. "Better get in there before all the good pups chose an owner."  
"It doesn't matter to me," Harry shrugged as he heard a demanding barking at his feet, it was the rouge Pooka from before. "Er . . . then again."   
Sirius chuckled, "Poor boy, that pup's a handful."  
"Just my luck," Harry knelt down to pet the pup, who jumped on his out stretched hand. It was surprisingly light, probably only a pound, it's scurry coat was very soft, and with it's flopped over ears and stubby tail it was very cute. The only thing that didn't make it look like a black Labrador were its eyes; they were like liquid gold. "What's it's name?"  
"That's up to you," said Sirius as the puppy scrambled onto Harry's shoulder. "Good luck,"he said before going to check on the students.  
"Okay,"Harry said looking at his Pooka, who sneezed a second later. "Er . . . bless you."  
At that moment Ron yelled, "Hey Harry, nice hair!"  
Harry gave him an astonished look, and felt his hair; it was curly! And high?! He turned back to his classmates, all of whom were laughing.   
"Here," said Lavender Brown, handed Harry her compact mirror.  
Harry flicked it open and stared dumbfounded at his reflection; his hair was now curly, and no longer flopping all over the place on top of his head but piled on top of his head in a hump-like shape, and a fringe hung down in the back. His hair was now styled like an old rockin' roll mullet! It also didn't help that no longer was his hair black, but blue! 

"Nice fashion statement, Harry!" Mandy Brocklehurst joked. "It'll make the cover of Witch Weekly!"

"Harry, who's your stylist? They should be arrested for breaking the fashion law!"

Harry looked to Sirius for help, which his godfather proved very little by laughing along with the rest. "Haha, very funny," Harry muttered while having a brief fight with his robes to find his wand, pulled it out, and turned his hair back to normal with one exception, it was still blue. He tried several different spells, but none could return his hair back to black. "Er . . . Siri- Professor Black? Professor Lupin? A little help, please?"

Remus smiled, "I'm sorry Harry, but I'm afraid there are still some branches of magic wizards, and more astonishingly witches haven't been able to tap into or reverse. You're hair will have to remain blue until your Pooka decides to reverse it, or it simply wears off." 

"And what if it doesn't?" Harry asked glaring at the Pooka.

Remus shrugged with a smile, "It all depends on your Pooka, Harry." 

"So in other words I'm stuck with blue hair for a loooong time, huh?" "Maybe," Sirius smirked. "Now, class as you can plainly see Mr. Potter is the victim--I mean master-- of a particularly mischievous Pooka, and owning one of those kind can be fun--- that is until you end up with the short end of the stick." 

The class laughed and Harry's face turned bright red and hid his face in his hands. His Pooka jumped lightly on his head, and bowed to the applauding students. Harry groaned into his hands.

Another chorus of laughter came from the crowd as Harry felt as if the Pooka was hopping on his head. Using Lavender's mirror he saw what the little dog was really doing . . .tap dancing! Complete with top-hat! The Pooka was tap dancing on his head! 

Harry shook his head lightly and the Pooka lost its balance and fell. It landed gracefully on the ground

"The world's next Fred Astaire!" Sirius said gesturing to the dog.

Harry looked up confused, "Who is Fred Astaire?"

"A famous tap dancer from the 30's," Remus said quickly. The he added softly to Harry, "And the only reason Sirius knows that is because he dated a girl who was nuts about dancing once."

Harry chuckled and just then the bell rang

"Homework is due by the next class, dismissed," Remus said as the class turned to leave.

They nodded and headed off to Transfiguration

"Do you think McGonagall will know a cure for this?" Harry said pointing to his hair.

"You heard Lupin, Harry, there is no reversal spell," Hermione said looking at Harry's Pooka, who was trotting happily behind its new master. 

Harry groaned in dismay, and looked at his Pooka, "Are you going to fix this any time soon?" he asked pointing to his hair.

It shook its head, grinning a dog-ish grin.

Harry glared at it good-naturedly.

"Look at it this way Harry, you could double for one of the Weird Sisters' back-up dancers, they all have blue hair anyway," Ron said jokingly.

Harry glared and punched Ron in the shoulder, "Shut up."

"Touchy," Ron smirked as he held the door open for Harry, and Hermione. Before he let go a most un-welcomed person walked through the open door. "Finally found a job you could do, Weasley?"

Ron turned red in anger, "Sod off, Malfoy." was all he came up with at the moment.

"Ooooh, witty comeback, Weasley. I'm so frightened." Malfoy mocked.

"You should be Malfoy, don't you know that white ferrets are killed, and sold for their pelts?" Hermione snapped, coming to Ron's defense. 

Malfoy flushed and stomped off, unable to come up with a response.

"Not able to get the last word, Malfoy?" Harry called, his eyes alight with laughter.

Sadly, those words became Harry's downfall because when Malfoy turned around he noticed Harry's hair.

"Potter, what happened to you? Your wand malfunction? Or did you think of entering a freak show? I'm sure you'll get in."

Harry scowled but before he could do anything his Pooka barked and Malfoy's hair was bright pink.

Harry raised wand behind his back, and sheet of parchment fell down from the ceiling, landing at Malfoy's feet. Malfoy picked it up, read it, and looked at Harry, "I'd watch my step if I was you Potter or you might be next!" With that Malfoy crumpled the parchment, and threw it at Harry (who caught it), and stomped off.

"What's that?" Ron asked pointing at the parchment. Harry showed it to him, Ron covered his mouth to stop himself from laughing. 

"What is it?" Hermione asked taking the parchment from Harry, and smiling when she read it out loud; Dear Mr. Malfoy, 

We are pleased to inform you that you have been excepted to the London Circus's Freak Show as "Draco Malfoy, the Amazing Bouncing Pink Ferret." 

Ron burst out laughing and even Hermione was chuckling. "Brilliant, Harry!" Ron gasped out.

"Tha---" 

"Potter!" a stern voice called.

Harry whirled around and came face to face with Professor Gudgeon. "Yes?" said Harry confused 

"Malfoy came into class ranting that you turned his hair pink."

"I didn't turn his hair pink," Harry said stubbornly.

Gudgeon rolled his eyes, "Then who did? The dog?" He pointed at Harry's Pooka.

Harry nodded, "Yes, sir." 

"Come with me, Potter." Gudgeon said, grabbing Harry's arm and dragging him to his office. adding to Ron and Hermione, "You two, off to class."

"See you," Harry said to Ron and Hermione as he was dragged off.

Gudgeon pulled Harry into his office and sat him down in a chair while he sat down behind his desk. Harry suddenly sniggered.

"What's so amusing, please let me in on the joke." Gudgeon said, dead panned.

"Well, sir, your hair is bright purple!" Harry said, trying to hold back his laughter.

"What?!" Gudgeon yelled, conjuring up a mirror, and then gasping when he saw his hair. "Potter!"

"I didn't do it!" Harry said, his laughter turning into rage.

"Oh, let me guess, the dog did?"

"It's a Pooka, sir, and yes it did." Harry said.

"Don't you sharp-shoot me,"Gudgeon said shortly, then said "Harry, if you're honest with me then I won't punish you, now did you do this, or did you not?"

"I didn't! My Pooka did!" Harry said while avoiding looking at Gudgeon's hair."Look at my hair if you don't believe me."

"What are you talking about, Potter? Your hair is perfectly normal."

"What! It was blue!" Harry said, feeling his hair. Harry grabbed the mirror, and Gudgeon was right. "It was! I swear! Ask Sirius!"

"I don't think I'll have to resort to that, Potter. He'll just go along with your story, after all, he is your godfather. Come see me tonight at around 9:00 for your punishments. You are dismissed." 

Harry stuttered for a second as Gudgeon guided him out the door. He glared at his Pooka all the way to Transfiguration, when he opened the door McGonagall raised her head from a report she was reading, and asked, "Potter, what is the matter with your hair?"

Harry felt his hair, "What are you talking about?"

She gave him a funny look, "I don't know if you've realized this Mr. Potter, but your hair is blue!"

"Professor Gudgeon said it was normal! It was normal a few minutes ago!" Harry said, shocked.

McGonagall conjured up a mirror, and handed it to Harry. Harry looked in it and screamed, "I'm cursed!"

"Well, obviously," she said. "Now get to your seat."

Harry walked shakily to his seat next to Ron. "What happened?" Ron whispered.

"I'll tell you later." Harry muttered. 

"Potter, your Pooka?" she said pointing to the dog. 

"What about it, Professor?" Harry asked.

"It has to go outside for the remainder of this lesson."

"Gladly," Harry said nudging the Pooka out the door to join the other waiting Pookas. He wasn't on the best terms with the animal at the moment.

A few minutes after Harry sat down and McGonagall returned to her lecture there was a bunch of barking. McGonagall cast a silencing charm. 

"Now to turn a field mouse into a pig, you must first know the bone, and organ structure of both animals . . . and what in heaven's name is that?" There was a loud banging at the door. 

Everyone turned to the door and then-BANG! it was busted down and all the Pooka's ran to their masters, yapping in delight.

"OH, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!" McGonagall cried as the Pookas turned the quiet room into one of utter chaos.

Harry's Pooka jumped onto him, licking his face excitedly. Field mice were running everywhere as well as one pig (Hermione's). McGonagall shot up sparks and surprisingly the Pookas quieted down.

She pointed her wand at all of them, "All of you! You may stay here as long as you keep quiet!" She said sharply.

The Pookas all nodded in unison

"Alright, then," She said. "Accio field mice!" All of the Field mice came whizzing back. "Accio pig!" Hermione's pig also came back. "Now, let's try again."

Harry turned his attention back to the lesson, but little did he know that the pooka's were also watching the lesson with wide eyes at the mice. "As you see Ms. Granger's pig has the perfect bone and organ structuuuuuuu . . . Oh! No!" One of the Pooka had ripped the rat right out of her hand, and was chasing it around the room.

"Harry Potter! Control your Pooka this instant!" McGonagall shouted furiously.

Harry had had it for today, "HEY! YOU!" His Pooka turned toward him, grinning. "WIPE THAT SMILE OFF YOUR FACE, AND COME HERE AND SIT DOWN!" Harry shouted.

The Pooka kept on smiling and jumped over to Harry and licked his face, Harry took it into his arms. He plopped down in the chair and held the dog tightly, "Will you stop that?"

The puppy whimpered at Harry's sharp voice.

"It's okay," Harry said softly, "but you have to listen to me, and sit and stay, okay?" The Pooka nodded, and layed down in Harry's lap. And Sirius said this would be a relatively easy project, Harry thought while petting the small dog.

The class continued without further interruption. When the bell rang, Harry decided it was time to pay his godfather a visit. "Do you guys want to come?" he asked Ron and Hermione.

"Sorry Harry, I can't, prefects meeting," Hermione said.

"Ron?"

"Sure," Ron said glancing down at his own pooka who was taller, and stronger looking then Harry's with frosted blue eyes. "They should be finishing up their lessons now, right?"

"Right. He-the Pooka-- has to stop changing everyone's hair color," Harry grumbled as they walked down to the grounds and saw Sirius and Remus cleaning up and heading up to the castle for dinner.

"Hey, Professor Black! Professor Lupin, wait!" Harry called, waving at them.

They stopped and waited for them to come over.

"Oh no, it's them again!" Sirius said in a mock-sigh. "Why is it always the students you can't seem to stand always come for extra help?"

"Hey!" Harry, and Ron glowered at him. 

"Just kidding, what can we do for you, guys?" Sirius said.

"Get me out of a detention?" Harry said hopefully.

"And get his Pooka to stop changing everyone's hair color," added Ron. "Detention?" Sirius raised an eyebrow. "How'd you get a detention already?"

"Jealous?" Remus asked

"Professor Gudgeon gave me one because my Pooka turned Malfoy's hair pink and his hair purple! He doesn't believe me when I tell him my Pooka did it," Harry said.

"Really? Didn't he see your hair?" Remus said, logically.

"My Pooka changed it back to normal and when I got to Transfiguration it was blue again. I have to be at his office by 9:00 tonight."

Sirius grimaced, "Poor kid, I don't know what Davey might come up with for you, and I'm worried about that." 

"Do you think you can talk to him?" Harry asked, looking from Lupin back to Sirius.

"Sorry, Harry," Remus shook his head. 

"Sirius?" 

Sirius shook his head, "Sorry buddy, even I have to obey the rules this time." 

Harry sighed, "Okay, at least his hair will still be purple."

"Purple? On Gudgeon? Nice work fella," Ron said petting Harry's Pooka. 

The Pooka bowed.

Remus looked at his watch, "I think it's time for you head up to dinner, boys, we'll be along shortly."

"Okay, see you later," Harry said.

Harry turned to leave when Sirius asked, "By the way what shade of blue is that?"

"Kerry Blue Terrier blue."  
~~~~~~~~~~~~

That night Harry dragged himself down to Gudgeon's office, his Pooka trotting happily alongside him. He had pulled a baseball cap over his hair so Gudgeon didn't think that he had magical dyed to just to prove to him that his hair was blue. As he neared Gudgeon's office he saw Gudgeon waiting for him.

"Hello Mr. Potter," Gudgeon said, holding a bucket, sponges, and metal polish. "Ready for you detention?"

"Yes sir," Harry said glumly. 

"Follow me." Gudgeon led Harry down to the trophy room, and gestured to the wall of Quidditch trophies. "All of these need to be cleaned and polished, without magic mind."

Harry nodded. He grabbed a rag and a trophy, and began the long task of cleaning them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hours later, Harry, and his Pooka slipped through the portrait hole. Harry was exhausted, his fingers and back ached, and he smelled strongly of polished. 

The common room was dark, silent, the weak fire was casting long shadows across the carpeted floor. The room was deserted.

Harry collapsed in an armchair, he was going to rest for a minute before going to bed. He glanced absent-mindly up at the dying fire, and his eyes bugged out, he thought he saw one of the flames turn into James Potter's face!

Harry shook his head, it had to be his imagination or something.

The Pooka looked at the fire, and started growling.

Harry blinked furiously trying to see what the Pooka saw, if he saw anything at all. As if by some mystical force his Care of Magical Creatures book fell out of his half-closed book-bag, hit the floor, and opened to the page marked Animals, and Spirits. He lifted the book up, and read the page, It has been greatly speculated that animal (dogs, cats, Pookas, birds, etc.) can sense when something from the Netherworld had entered a room. Harry looked at his pooka with wide eyes and then back at the fire, "Dad?" he whispered.

No answer. 

He sighed sadly and put his book back in his bag, "I'm just being stupid." 

The Pooka snorted as if to say, "Hello! Listen to me!" 

Harry looked over at the Pooka, "What?"

The Pooka walked over to the fire, and put his paw in it.

"Hey! Don't do that!" Harry yelped grabbing the puppy before it got its paw burnt. The Pooka squirmed in Harry's arms."Whoa, easy boy," he soothed, stroking its head. 

  
  


The puppy squirmed furiously, yapping at the fire.

"No, you'll get hurt if you go in there," Harry said. 

Harry looked at the fire and dropped his Pooka in surprise-there was his father's head again! And then with a flick of a flame it was gone again. "What the--?" Harry said kneeling down by the fire.

The Pooka was barking wildly at the fire as Harry peered into it.

Harry sighed and straighten up, just fire. He picked up his Pooka and carried it to his dorm.

Everyone was already asleep with their curtains drawn around their bed. Harry placed the Pooka on his bed, and looked at it. "You saw something right?"he whispered. 

The Pooka nodded.

"And I saw something, and . . . maybe we're both nuts," Harry sat down dejectedly on his bed.

The Pooka jumped up and licked his face. Barking as if to say, "We're NOT nuts, we DID see something!"

"Okay, okay!" Harry laughed, shielding his face from the Pooka's lick-attack. Harry laid back on his bed and the Pooka sat on his chest. "We saw something, that something was my father's face," Harry said to the Pooka. "Why would my father be in the Gryffindor fire?" The Pooka shrugged. "I don't know either," Harry admitted. He sighed looking at the bedside clock, it was almost three. That gave him about four hours of blessed sleep. "We'll figure this out tomorrow," he told the Pooka as it scrabbled off Harry's chest, and curled up next to him. Without even bothering to undress Harry closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep, murmuring, "This is going to be one very weird year."

~~~~~~~~~~~~


	5. All Hollow's Eve

Hello, is anyone still reading this? Has anyone thought that I had died? That Sirius had taken a permanent vacation, and I was too distressed to write? Sadly, no, Sirius is still here and I still am writing, I've just been a little overworked and . . .  
  
Sirius: A little lazy.  
  
Whisperer: Anyway to make up for it I have an extra long, chuck-full of interesting stuff chapter for you.  
  
Sirius: So what are doing here reading our stupid author's notes? Go read the chapter!  
  
Thank you to everyone who reviewed chapter four, especially those who wished me a Happy Birthday! It was wonderful!  
  
Special Thanks: My extreme thanks to my two Betas; Dumbledore's True Love and Star4ever. They rock! They encouraged me the whole time, and they deserve a hand! *claps*  
  
Sequel to Harry Potter and the Emerald Eye. (I suggest you read that first, but you don't have to, it's just a good idea.) Harry's in for quite a year when he starts seeing things that no one else can, is it a dream? Or is he really going crazy? Questions start arising like what did Voldemort do to his victim after he killed them? This has it all; mystery, insanity, a lot of Sirius and Remus, and everyone calls Harry a lunatic at least once! ;)  
  
Disclaimer - This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I own the plot and a few original things.  
  
  
  
Chapter 5: All Hollow's Eve  
  
"What are those things?" were the first words Harry heard out of Professor Snape's mouth Friday afternoon.  
  
"Pookas, Professor," Hermione tried to explain. "They are part of our Care of Magical Creatures O. W. L.; they must survive the school year in our care."  
  
Snape shook his head disdainfully, "Trust Black to come up with such a bone-brained assignment as this."  
  
Harry bit his tongue to not say something in Sirius's defense.  
  
"Keep them outside," commanded Snape.  
  
"We tried that in Transfiguration, Professor," Neville Longbottom said feebly. "They broke down the door, hinges and all."  
  
Snape didn't even blink, only said in his silky voice, "Then keep them quiet in here, but I doubt that will be possible since you can barely keep yourselves quiet while in this classroom."  
  
Ron rolled his eyes as they walked to their seats, "Lousy git, 'you can barely keep yourselves quiet,' what classroom has he been in? If we were any quieter while in here, we'd be dead."  
  
Harry and Hermione giggled at Ron's joke as they unpack their potion ingredients.  
  
"This term," Snape began in his typical teaching voice. "We will be making, and some of us will be trying to make," he looked over at the Gryffindors while saying this, "the Eros Potion."  
  
Immediately, Hermione's hand shot into the air, "Professor! The Eros is a love potion, and aren't love potions forbidden in Hogwarts?"  
  
"Thank you, Ms. Granger for pointing out the overly obvious," said Snape. "Yes, love potions are forbidden on Hogwarts grounds, but the ones that are forbidden are the ones that actually make people fall in love, not ones that are fatal to certain dark creatures."  
  
Harry turned to Hermione, "What does he mean by that?"  
  
Putting her hand down, Hermione sighed, "Don't you ever read? Love is a very powerful thing, and deadly to certain dark creatures, like when You-Know-Who couldn't touch you because of your mum's protection, it was probably a kind of motherly-love spell she placed on you, and if, a demon for example, had touched you it would have died completely."  
  
"Oh, I see," Harry muttered, before turning to Ron, whispering so Hermione wouldn't hear. "What is she talking about?"  
  
Ron shrugged, "Hermione language."  
  
Harry nodded.  
  
"And half a cup of rose pedals," Snape said finishing up the list of ingredients needed to make the potion. "I will be walking around if you need help."  
  
Harry flinched, had he missed the entire list of ingredients? Great way to start the year, Potter. "Umm, Hermione, what was before half a cup of rose pedals?"  
  
"A teaspoon of belladonna."  
  
Harry scribbled it down, "And before that?"  
  
"Did you get any of the ingredients?"  
  
"Besides half a cup of rose pedals, and a teaspoon of belladonna, no," Harry said innocently.  
  
Hermione huffed, and rattled off the list of ingredients.  
  
"Next time you might pay attention when I speak, Potter, and then Ms. Granger wouldn't have to save your pathetic hide," said a voice right in Harry's ear, Snape. "Ten points off Gryffindor for each of you."  
  
"But!" Ron snapped.  
  
"Did any one ask for your two knuts, Weasley? No, which I doubt your family could afford," said Snape icily.  
  
Ron's ears reddened, but said nothing.  
  
Snape turned to leave, but Harry started to get to his feet.  
  
"Don't," Ron warned, grabbing Harry's sleeve, and pulling him back down. "We don't want to lose Gryffindor any more points."  
  
Reluctantly, Harry started to make his potion, which was turning out horrible, not that he needed Snape to point that out several times.  
  
"I really hate that . . .!" Harry grumbled, calling Snape something that even Sirius would have looked down on him for saying.  
  
"Harry," Hermione warned, looking around to see if Snape had heard him.  
  
"He's right, Hermione, Snape is . . . what Harry called him," Ron said, opting not to repeat what Harry said since Hermione was giving him a hard look. "What'd we have next, Har'?"  
  
Harry pulled out his schedule, and scanned it quickly, "Defense with Gudgeon, oh joy."  
  
"Wonder if he's any good," Ron mused.  
  
"He is!" said Hermione earnestly. "He's one of the few wizards to ever subdue a female Hungarian Horntail!"  
  
"Yeah, Charlie's mentioned him once! He was the one responsible for getting the dragons for the first task."  
  
"He's just like Snape!" Harry dead-panned as they reached the Defense classroom. "He gave me detention Wednesday night, remember?"  
  
Ron shook his head, "What? Your hair is back to normal now, and so is everyone else's."  
  
"But he's unbearable! 'Potter, that trophy still isn't clean; can't you properly polish a simple Quidditch trophy?'" Then for some reason Harry hit himself in the forehead as they took their seats. "I almost forgot!"  
  
"Forgot what?" inquired Hermione.  
  
"Nothing, I'll tell you later, Gudgeon's coming," Harry whispered as he saw the professor coming down the hall.  
  
A moment later, Gudgeon entered, lugging a huge briefcase. "Hello," he said cheerfully, while opening the briefcase, and taking out several strange-looking devices. "This year is one of the most crucial of your wizarding education, and especially in your Defense Against the Dark Arts education. This year you will be learning how to recognize cursed objects, and break the curses on them." He held up a package of Chocolate Frogs, and grinned, "How many of you have heard the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves?"  
  
Every hand in the class went up.  
  
"Well, the Grimm's brothers got it wrong, it wasn't a poisoned apple, it was a cursed apple that the Evil Queen gave to the incredibly gullible Snow White," Gudgeon said, tossing the frog from hand to hand when one frog became two frogs, and three became four, and so on, until Gudgeon was juggling eight packages of Chocolate Frogs, before tossing one package to each person in the class. "Now, don't eat them, yet. Each one of them bares a curse, but no two are the same. Your job is to figure out which curse it is, and use the appropriate counter-curse, and when that works, then you may eat the frog. So what are you waiting for? Go on, start."  
  
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other, then at Gudgeon, then back at their frogs. Maybe this Defense teacher wouldn't be so bad after all.  
  
By the time the bell rang, almost everybody was munching happily on their Chocolate Frogs, but Gudgeon had warned them although they did a very good job, this was only a warm up, and the curses to come would be much, much harder.  
  
"You know," Ron said before taking another bite out of his frog, "we might finally have a normal Defense professor that isn't a psychopath, a clueless prat, a werewolf although Professor Lupin still rocks so don't scowl Harry, or an imposter who was working for You-Know- Who."  
  
All three Pookas barked in agreement.  
  
"Have you guys named your Pookas yet?" Neville asked, walking up alongside them.  
  
"Nope," all three said in unison.  
  
"Have you named yours, Neville?" asked Hermione.  
  
Neville grinned sheepishly, "Yeah, I read somewhere that they like to be named after things in mythology that reflect their personality or something in their master life that means something to them, it increases their power, and loyalty to their master. So he's Kingsfoil, but King for short."  
  
Hermione nodded, "That's a fine name for him," she said looking down at Neville's Pooka, who had large green eyes. "I think I'm going to research a name for mine after diner tonight."  
  
"Me too," Ron agreed.  
  
"Me three," Harry added.  
  
"Think again, Harry," said Katie Bell as she causally slung an arm around Harry's shoulders. She was a tall girl with dark brown hair that was tried back in a ponytail, and was a Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.  
  
"Huh? What? Why?" sputtered Harry.  
  
"Because we have a team meeting," she said, grinning.  
  
"But it isn't even the second week of school yet!"  
  
"Yeah, but we need to start early, we need to hold try-outs next week and the week after that, and think of new plays, and a ton of other things so we're starting early. Now, let's go. Chop! Chop!" She grabbed Harry's robe, and started to drag him toward the Quidditch pitch. "See you, Ron, Hermione, Neville!" she called back.  
  
"Bye guys!" Harry sighed as he was pulled along.  
  
"We'll save you some dinner!" Hermione promised before Harry was dragged around a corner, and out of sight.  
  
"Katie," Harry protested, "I don't even have my Firebolt, and I kind of want to change into my regular clothes."  
  
"I took the liberty of getting them from your room, you can change in the locker room, your duffle bag is there too," Katie said quickly.  
  
Harry gave her a look of complete astonishment. "You're beginning to sound like Oliver."  
  
Katie gave him a satisfied smirked.  
  
"Oh Lord," Harry gasped realizing it at last. "You're the captain, right?"  
  
"Yup, and next year will be," she said happily.  
  
"Me?" Harry said blankly.  
  
"Well, yeah," she said as they reached the locker rooms. "Your stuff is in there, I have to go find Fred and George. Angie and Alicia should be in there changing too, I'll explain everything when I get back." With that she dashed off to find the Weasley twins.  
  
Carefully, he opened the locker room door. "Angelina? Alicia?"  
  
"In here, Harry!" Angelina called. Then added, "It's okay, you can come in, and get changed. Just let us grab our brooms, and we'll be out."  
  
"Er, okay," Harry replied, and a minute later Angelina and Alicia walked out of the locker room. He entered the room, changed, grabbed the Firebolt, and headed back outside. He bumped into Fred and George. "Sorry," he mumbled.  
  
"It's okay,"" George said. "Did Katie drag you out of class too?"  
  
"Yeah, you too?"  
  
"She's going to be another Wood," Fred added, shouldering a duffle bag. "See ya in five minutes."  
  
"Okay," Harry agreed.  
  
Five minutes later, the entire team was assembled on the newly restored Quidditch pitch. Katie was walking up, and down the line of players with a serious look on her face. "Okay, guys and girls," she said sternly. "This is going to be a big year for everyone on this team; we will be inducting a new teammate, facing harder opponents, and for some of us it will be the last year we will ever play on the Gryffindor House Quidditch team," she paused for a moment before continuing, "but there are some things that I would like you to take away from this season like knowing that you are going to do your best every time you step onto this pitch, and try and make this season one for the record books."  
  
"Yeah!" the other members of the team chorused.  
  
Katie grinned, "Good, now, the first thing we have to do is hold tryouts for a Keeper, those will take place next week. We'll start serious practices the following week, and our first match is scheduled for the second Saturday of November, we're playing Slytherin as usual. Today, we're just having a little warm up practice since we didn't have a season last year." With that she tossed the Quaffle into the air, and the practice began.  
  
Two hours later, Harry entered the Gryffindor common to see Ron working at one of the back tables poring over books.  
  
"Hey," he said walking over, and collapsing in a free chair.  
  
"Hey," Ron grunted from behind a large book. "How does Thor sound to you?"  
  
"It's okay, why?"  
  
"'Cause I need a name for him," Ron pointed at his Pooka.  
  
Harry looked down at his; it was playing poker with Dean's and Seamus's. "No research needed for mine, Psycho will do just fine."  
  
Harry's Pooka jumped up on the table, spraying cards everywhere, and gave Harry the dirtiest look it could muster.  
  
"I think Psycho is out," Ron muttered.  
  
"Oh yeah."  
  
The portrait hole was opened just then, and Hermione scrambled in with a load of books under her right arm. She walked over, placed the books on their table, saying hello to Harry.  
  
"Found a name for your Pooka yet?" Harry asked.  
  
"Not yet, she doesn't seem to like any of the names I pick out," Hermione sighed. Her Pooka leapt up on the mahogany table, opened one book with her paw, and started to read.  
  
Harry took a book off Hermione's stack and started to skim through it. As time wore on they rattled off names to their Pookas, none of which they liked. As a last resort Hermione just flipped to the index, running off every word there until her Pooka barked sharply at one. "Athena?" Hermione repeated slowly. "Do you like that?"  
  
Her Pooka a nodded so hard that its ears flapped up and down. Hermione smiled, petting the dog.  
  
Harry took a moment to enjoy Hermione's success before going back to rattling off names to his Pooka. About fifteen minutes later he closed the book, and reached for another, his elbow hitting one of the books, knocking it to the floor. It must have opened because half a minute later Harry heard the sound of paper being crumbled. He looked down to see his Pooka pawing at one page. He picked the book up, and looked at the page. "Apex?"  
  
The Pooka shook its head.  
  
"Apis?"  
  
It shook its head again.  
  
"Apollo? What do you think of Apollo?" Harry asked his Pooka.  
  
"Ruff!"  
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  
Exactly one week later Harry was once again standing on the Quidditch along with the rest of the team. Katie was standing next to him holding a clipboard.  
  
"What do you think of them?" she whispered.  
  
Harry looked at the rag-tag group of Gryffindors in front of them. It was about an even mix of boys and girls, all of who looked slightly out of place on the field. "They look a little nervous," he mumbled back.  
  
Katie nodded, and stepped forward. "Welcome to Quidditch try-outs," she began. "Today you will be trying out for the position of Keeper. When Harry calls your name you will step forward, tell us if you've ever had any previous Quidditch experience, then mount your broom, fly in front of the goal hoops, and try and block the chasers shots. The person who gives the best performance will be on the team." She handed the clipboard to Harry.  
  
"Colin Creevy?" he called.  
  
After a few performances Harry noticed something, Ron wasn't there. He mentioned it to George Weasley.  
  
"Said that he wanted to wait for next year so he could have a go for Chaser, don't asked me why," George whispered, watching a try-out. "Look at this bloke, one good Bludger comes his way, and we'll be wiping him off the field."  
  
An hour later, things weren't going very well. It seemed, to Harry, that all the Keeper hopefuls could be sorted into three categories: the bad, the horrible, and the 'how about you try Quodpot instead?' But what had really astonished Harry was that Ron hadn't shown up for the try-outs. He had made a mental note to ask him about it later as he read off the last name, "Norman Longo!"  
  
A boy Harry had never seen before stepped forward. He was wiry, with a thin face, and wore a Muggle baseball cap that hid his face.  
  
"What year are you in?"  
  
"Fourth."  
  
"Have you ever played on a Quidditch team before?" Harry asked for what felt like the millionth time.  
  
"Yeah, last summer," Longo said in a deep voice.  
  
"What position?"  
  
"The position I'm tryin' for," Longo said sardonically.  
  
Harry repressed a sigh as he checked the labeled Keeper experience. Another "I'm God's gift to Quidditch," he thought. "All right, mount your broom and see how you fair against our Chasers, you'll be scored accordingly."  
  
Longo mounted his broom, and kicked off with ease; rising faster and higher then any of the others could without pulling their broom out of their ascent first. He positioned himself in front of the goal posts. Harry watched as everything Angelina, Alicia, and Katie tried to score a goal failed. Longo was everywhere at once; he seemed to be reading their minds.  
  
"Blimey, he's good," Fred whispered.  
  
Harry nodded, looking down at the paper at the eight lines that were meant for comments, and started scribbling furiously. Things like, Good control over the broom, nice reflexes, and he's blocking every one of your shots!  
  
When Longo's try-out had ended, the Chasers landed, and Katie turned to the Keeper hopefuls. "Thank you for coming today," she said hastily. "You are all great athletes but, unfortunately, we only have one position open. My teammates and I will go over your performances, and will be in touch. Bye!"  
  
The boys and girls, shouldered their brooms, and started to leave while Katie rushed over to the rest of the team. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"  
  
"Longo is bank!" Angelina grinned.  
  
"Agreed?"  
  
The team nodded.  
  
Katie turn around, yelling, "Longo! Hey Longo! Come over here!"  
  
Longo, who was fiddling with his broom, got to his feet, and walked over to them, wiping the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. "Yeah?"  
  
"How would you like to play Keeper for Hogwarts reigning Quidditch champions?" Katie asked, extending her hand.  
  
"You mean?" Longo gasped in disbelief.  
  
She nodded.  
  
Longo's face broke into a wide smile, "Sure." He shook Katie's hand.  
  
"Welcome to the team."  
  
~~~~~~  
  
A golden sun dawned bright on October 31st, slowly drying the grass that was drenched from the previous day's storm. It was still a little slippery by the afternoon, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione could be seen sprinting across it to Care of Magical Creatures. McGonagall had kept them working on transfiguring a rock into a razorback down to the last second.  
  
"We're going to be late," Hermione grumbled, as she ran alongside Harry.  
  
"No we're not," Ron said, stretching his long legs.  
  
Harry gritted his teeth as a stitch formed in his side as he ran; he could see the other Gryffindors and Ravenclaws by now. He ran faster, his sneakers sliding on the slick grass. He started to lose his balance.  
  
Ron made a grab for Harry's robes to stop him from falling, but crashed into him instead.  
  
"No! No!" Hermione yelped as she skidded into them.  
  
They tumbled for a few minutes, finally ending up in a crumbled heap.  
  
"Well, that's one way to get to class on time," said a cheery voice.  
  
"Sirius," Harry groaned, his glasses dangling precariously off one ear.  
  
Sirius smirked, helping them up. "Go get ready for class. Moony's teaching to day so be good."  
  
Harry smirked, and followed Ron and Hermione to where the rest of the Gryffindors were standing.  
  
"Today," Lupin began, "we will be having a little review---"  
  
They groaned.  
  
"Don't worry, this will be fun," he assured them, twirling his wand between his fingers. "This review is sort of a game, a Halloween treat you could say."  
  
"What kind of game?" Parvati Patil asked curiously.  
  
Lupin smiled deviously, "A favorite of mine, Pitch Black."  
  
Suddenly, Sirius jumped to his feet, "D-did you say Pitch Black?"  
  
"And if I did?" Lupin said mildly.  
  
Sirius's face darkened, "There is no way in the—Remus, put your wand away, right now! Remus, NO-" In the very place Sirius had been standing sat a black and white hacky sack that was about the size of a baseball.  
  
Lupin picked up the hacky sack, and tossed it from hand to hand, looking at the students astonished faces. "Sirius?" he asked the hacky sack.  
  
"Yeah," a decidedly grumpy voice came from the hacky sack.  
  
Lupin nodded, "Good, you still have your voice." Then he turned to the class, "The rules of Pitch Black are simple. I will pitch Professor Black to you and whoever catches him must answer my question correctly then toss him back to me, but if you answer incorrectly then you may throw Professor Black in the dirt and kick him back to me. Any questions?"  
  
The class was stunned; no professor had ever asked them to do something this crazy. They loved it.  
  
"Ron!"  
  
Ron caught the hacky sack deftly as Lupin asked him where did Kappas originate from. "Japan?"  
  
"Correct," the hacky sack whimpered as Ron tossed it back to Lupin.  
  
The game proved to be extremely entertaining, and rather funny wherever Sirius would cry out to no in particular, "What did I do to deserve this?!" or "Remus, I'm going to get you for this!" All too soon, Lupin had to say, "I think it's time to end our game of Pitch Black for today, dismissed."  
  
"Thank the mother ship!" the hacky sack mumbled as the throng of students passed.  
  
"Harry, hold up a moment," Lupin called.  
  
Harry jogged back over to Lupin, "Yes sir?"  
  
"Would you mind waiting until I transfigure Sirius back to normal?"  
  
"Okay, but why?"  
  
Lupin grinned wryly, "Because I don't want him to kill me." He waved his wand around the hacky sack three times in a tight circle each time, then in one smooth, motion he pitched the hacky sack as hard as he could. As it rotated through the air, Harry noticed it beginning to stretch and flatten out, by the time it hit the ground it was no longer a hacky sack but a crabby-looking Sirius Black.  
  
Sirius got slowly to his feet, blinking furiously, grumbling. He brushed the dirt from his robes, and gave his head a good shake before turning around to look at Lupin. "Remus, old pal," he said in a friendly voice as he made his way over to Lupin. "How are you doing? Having a fun day?"  
  
Lupin nodded slowly, gripping his wand tightly.  
  
Sirius drew his wand and pointed it at Lupin, "Well, now, it's my turn for some fun, Snod-" Before Sirius could finish the spell; Harry stepped in front of Lupin, shielding him. Flabbergasted, Sirius lowered his wand, "Harry, what are you doing?"  
  
"Making sure you don't turn Professor Lupin in to a rotten tomato," said Harry.  
  
Sirius's eyes widened, "Harry, what makes you think I'd do such a thing?"  
  
"You wouldn't?" Harry asked doubtfully.  
  
"Would I lie to you?" Sirius gave Harry a half smile.  
  
Harry shook his head, and strode over to his godfather. He whispered something in Sirius's ear.  
  
Sirius nodded, and nonchalantly flicked his wand at Lupin.  
  
Lupin was utterly confused, looked and felt normal, at least on the outside. He open his mouth to ask what had Sirius done, but instead a long howl came out. Lupin's face reddened as he scowled at Sirius.  
  
"See what you get for turning me into a hacky sack, and trying to use Harry to avoid revenge?" Sirius said slinging an arm around Harry's shoulders.  
  
Lupin snarled at the both of them before pulling out a piece of parchment and scribbling; "When I get my voice back I'm going to turn the both of you into laughing hyenas!"  
  
~~~~~  
  
The Great Hall that night was in all its Halloween splendor. Live bats fluttered about the pitch black ceiling, and the giant jack-o-lanterns were lighted with a special type of candle that gave off an eerie green light. The usual candy filled feast filled the golden plates as the students talked, or ate, or did both at the same time.  
  
Harry and Ron were talking about Longo. Ron had seen Longo fly at the team's last practice and was already proclaiming that the Quidditch Cup would be theirs again. No one outside of the team knew much about Longo, only that he was something of a loner. "Have you ever heard of him before?" Harry asked before taking a bite of his baked potato.  
  
"I know him," Ginny piped up, she was sitting next to Hermione.  
  
Ron opened his mouth to tell Ginny to go sit with her own friends, but Harry stopped him. "What do you know about him?" Harry asked, almost feeling like a detective in an old movie.  
  
"Well," said Ginny, "I know that he's really smart, has a great sense of humor, but a bit of a loner though. I suppose we're friends, but it's hard to tell because he always seems to have a chip on his shoulder."  
  
"He sounds like an enigma," Hermione said, interested.  
  
Harry sighed, turning his head toward the staff table. Poor Lupin, Sirius had not yet taken the jinx off, so he still had writing everything down he wanted to say. Also Harry was mildly surprised to see that Sirius wasn't there. "Wonder where he got to," Harry mumbled looking down at his plate.  
  
"Harry."  
  
Harry jerked his head up sharply, he gasped. No longer was he at the Halloween feast, but in a deserted corridor near the Transfiguration classroom. Cautiously, he walked down the corridor, but found that he could not pass statue of Wendalin the Weird. He walked up to the statue, and felt it, looking for a handle or lever. Finding none, he grabbed Wendalin's long nose to help pull himself up.  
  
The nose broke off like it was on a hinged, and the next thing Harry knew he was careening down a dark passageway. He shot out the end of the passage, landing with a flump! Dazed, Harry scrambled to his feet, and looked about. A fierce hissing hit his ears.  
  
Kill them! Kill all of the Hogwartssss sssstudentssss.  
  
"HARRY!"  
  
Harry jumped; he was back in the Great Hall. There was laughter all around him. Ron had yelled in his ear.  
  
"Are you okay, Harry?" Hermione asked concerned. "You face went completely white, and your eyes froze . . . Harry, where are you going?! Harry!"  
  
Harry had leapt out of his seat, sprinting out of the Great Hall, Apollo at his heels. "Find Sirius, I'll be right back!" he yelled to Ron and Hermione.  
  
Once outside the Hall, Harry had no intention of finding Sirius, instead he headed for the Transfiguration corridor. He looked about frantically for the statue, seeing at the far end. He ran toward it full speed, Apollo on his heels. Tenitively, Harry grabbed the nose and yanked it down.  
  
Nothing.  
  
He waited for a few seconds, still nothing.  
  
Harry sighed, he was just being paranoid. He started to turn around when . . .  
  
. . . what must have been a secret passage had opened beneath his feet, sending him hurtling down a long, dark tunnel. The tunnel ended suddenly, causing Harry to fly several feet in the air before landing with a flump!  
  
"Argh," Harry moaned as his fingers brushed against something furry in the darkness, Apollo. "You!" he snarled as the Pooka gave him a cheeky grin. To tell the truth Harry found something comforting about having the sprite with him in the darkness.  
  
The darkness was another problem. A fixable one for now, but could later be a deadly one. "Lumos," Harry muttered as a dim light appeared at the end of his wand.  
  
With a thunderous crack! troches that lined the passageway ignited, providing Harry with more light than his wand ever could.  
  
Harry mumbled, "Nox," then peered down the long, winding passage.  
  
Apollo growled as a shadow flitted across the wall.  
  
Harry spun around, his wand held high—nothing. Sighing, Harry gathered up his courage and started down the passageway.  
  
He walked slowly down the unfamiliar passageway, his footsteps echoing eerily of the slime covered walls. Apollo walked nervously beside Harry as if he knew of the danger that they would soon face. All too soon, Harry turned one final corner that brought him to an arched opening that served as an entryway to a cobweb covered chamber. As Harry feared the chamber was not deserted.  
  
It was as thick as an oak tree. As it slithered across the debris covered floor causing a strange sort of path its green scales glittered in the flickering torch light like emeralds that had been dipped in a fatal potion.  
  
Harry felt his whole body began to tremble as he realized what it was. One word escaped his lips, "Basilisk."  
  
Apollo, as terrified as his master, yelped before running out of the room.  
  
But that small yelp caused the snake to swing its head around—Harry gasped. What he had thought was a basilisk was not one at all for the simple reason that ¾ of the way up the snake's body the hard scales turned to flesh. The snake had the torso, chest, arms, neck, and head of a man.  
  
~~~~~~~  
  
A brisk wind caused the surface of the lake to ripple. The same wind tugged playfully at the loose strands of Sirius Black's ponytail as he walked listlessly around the lake. He knew that he was suppose to be inside enjoying the feast with the other professors and the kids, but he . . .couldn't. Couldn't because tonight was night that, fourteen years ago, his whole world had come crashing down.  
  
Crazed thoughts flashed across his mind's eye, memories that Sirius had seen over in over in his head while in Azkaban. Over and over like an endless movie reel that seemed more real tonight then it had on any other year.  
  
He remembered the argument he had had with Hagrid that night or had it been early the next morning? He didn't remember. He wondered what Harry was doing right now. Did he even know that tonight was their Deathday? Maybe.  
  
Sirius suddenly found himself wanting—no he had—to know that Harry was all right. That he was safe, that he was . . . a sharp pain shot up Sirius's arm. A statue, a dark tunnel, a passageway lighted by torches, a cobweb covered chamber, a giant snake, and Harry flashed across his mind's eye.  
  
He stood there for a moment, his heart racing, and his breath came in huge gasps. Harry was in danger kept flashing across his mind in big, bold letters.  
  
A sharp bark awoke his senses, and a tugging on his cloak made his turn a around. It was a Pooka. A Pooka with golden eyes.  
  
The rouge, Sirius thought with a small smile. "What's up?"  
  
Apollo barked frantically, tugging at Sirius's cloak with all his might.  
  
Sirius tried in vain to make sense of the Pooka's crazed barks until finally shouting, "Hold it!" With a small pop! Sirius transformed into Padfoot.  
  
Apollo quickly explained the situation, "And there's this snake man thingy, and Harry's gonna die!"  
  
Padfoot paled drastically. "Where is he?" Padfoot said sharply.  
  
"Follow me," Apollo turned on a heel, and bound toward the castle, Padfoot on his heels.  
  
Apollo led him straight to the statue.  
  
"Now what?" Padfoot demanded as he watched Apollo jump up and down trying to bite Wendalin's nose.  
  
"I—ah!—can't—ah!—reach—ah!—it!" Apollo panted, snapping at the limestone nose.  
  
"Oh brother," Padfoot muttered, lying down so the Pooka could climb on his back. Once Apollo did, Padfoot slowly rose to his feet adjusting to the added weight. He felt the Pooka shifting his weight on his back, and dig his claws into his thick fur.  
  
"Damn," Apollo swore. "I still can't reach; you're going to have to stand on you hind legs."  
  
Padfoot nodded, and in one swift motion stood on his hind legs, leaning on the statue for balance. Apollo scrambled onto the larger dog's head (much to Padfoot's displeasure) and pushed down on the nose with his fore legs as hard as he could. It broke off sending them flying down the secret passage.  
  
~~~~  
  
Harry had never been in a worst spot in his life. This creature was worst then a basilisk. There seemed no way to kill it; every spell he sent at it was deflected by the scales.  
  
"You sssssseeeeee boy," it hissed as Harry backed away. "All the Hogwartssss sssstudentssss will die."  
  
"No!" Harry hissed vehemently.  
  
The creature laughed a high cruel laugh. It swung its tail around causing Harry to trip over it falling to the floor.  
  
Harry shuddered; he was surrounded by green scales.  
  
The creature smiled (revealing a mouth of fangs that were practically oozing with venom), "Sssstttaaarrtting with you."  
  
It's all over but the funeral, Harry thought, shutting his eyes. But no pain came, no sickening feeling, nothing. Harry opened his eyes slowly; the creature had turned away from his and was staring at something beyond his view.  
  
A sudden scream—something between a man's shout and a snake's pained hiss-- pierced his ears. Something had bitten the creature.  
  
When Harry saw what had distracted the creature, he could have smiled, Padfoot. The massive mutt dodged every swipe the creature made at him.  
  
"You think you can ssssaaavvveee the boy?" the creature snarled.  
  
Padfoot growled.  
  
"I'd like to sssssseeeeee you try."  
  
Padfoot kicked a piece of debris at the creature's eye.  
  
The creature shouted in pain.  
  
Harry raised his wand, but was knocked to the floor by Padfoot. Padfoot motioned to Harry's wand, shaking his head fiercely, before getting off his godson, and dragging him into a corner. There he transformed back to normal. The first words out of his mouth were, "Are you all right?"  
  
Harry nodded slowly, feeling as if he had been struck dumb.  
  
"Put your wand away for now Harry," Sirius commanded. "Curses and jinx can't kill it."  
  
Harry shoved his wand into his pocket while finally finding his voice. "Then what will?"  
  
Sirius drew his wand, and pointed it at two pebbles. The small stones became thin, and lengthened until forming two swords. Sirius examined the swords before handing one to Harry. "This will."  
  
Perplexed, Harry took the sword, "I don't think I cam do thi—"  
  
"Duck!" Sirius yanked Harry down as the thick tail swung over their heads. The tail hit a near by column shattering it, covering Harry and Sirius in small chunks of rubble.  
  
Kicking and pushing furiously, they managed to scramble out of the rumble, swords in hand. Sirius looked at Harry and jerked his head to the right while he when to the left.  
  
With its one good eye, the creature saw Harry edging along the wall, and lunged.  
  
Silver flashed!  
  
Blood stained on the floor!  
  
The snake half of the creature flared, nearly sending Sirius to the rock hard ground.  
  
Another flash of silver! Harry had struck.  
  
Back and forth they went, one distracting the monster while the other attacked. If one was in peril, the other would dart about the room, striking his sword into the scales. The creature eventually caught on to this bit of trickery though. And with one good smack of his huge tail the ground trembled sending both godfather and godson to the floor. Their swords skidded across the floor, well out of reach.  
  
"Oh bugger," they swore as the creature, with its fanged mouth, sneered at them.  
  
The blasted monster hissed furiously at Harry. Harry hissed back in a cold, bitter tone that even Sirius (who had no idea what they were saying) could sense.  
  
Behind his back Harry was trying to mime to Sirius to get the swords, but he quickly realized that his godfather wouldn't leave his side. So suddenly, that not even Harry could explain what had happen just then, Harry leapt to his feet and jumped, scrambled, and skirted around, over and under the debris with a cat-like grace that even the most highly trained gymnastic might have envied. He grabbed his sword, and pieced the hard, scaled flesh, pushing it as deep as he could without having difficulty yanking it back out.  
  
The creature twisted around, obviously pained by this blow, and looked into Harry's eyes as if trying to freeze them with the frigid fury that its own eye held.  
  
Mesmerized by the creature's eye, (which was a swirling orb of yellow, red, and green) Harry stepped back. He retreated or, in some cases herded, until his back was against the wall. He was as good as dead.  
  
The creature slithered forward giving Harry an oddly cynical grin. "It iiissss an honor to haaavvveee Haarryy Potteer aas an appeeetttiiizzzeeerrr."  
  
Harry watched in horror as the monster drew itself up high, unhinged its jaw, prepared to strike.  
  
Out of the corner of his eye Harry saw a streak of silver, as straight as an arrow and twice as deadly, it plunged straight though the creature's human chest, piercing its heart. The creature swayed unsteadily as its eyes rolled over white. Harry dived out of the way as it fell forward, dead.  
  
Without thinking, Harry leapt over the monster's carcass and bounded toward his godfather.  
  
Sirius smiled as Harry flung his arms around his neck rambling "Thank you" over and over again. "It was nothing," Sirius mumbled, clinging to Harry. His eyes traveled back over to the motionless body, a chill ran up his spine. "Let's get out of here," he said quickly.  
  
Harry nodded, letting go of Sirius.  
  
Bruised and bloody, they walked toward the arched entryway when a low hiss reached Harry's ears. He glanced over his shoulder at the carcass, the tail was twitching. "Sirius!"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
Harry pointed at the tail, "Please tell me that's nerve endings."  
  
The color drained from Sirius's face, "Ah . . ."  
  
A half human roar, half snake cackle like battle cry filled the room. Harry and Sirius spun around to see eyes gleaming, forked tongue waving, and venom dripping fangs. The creature was still alive.  
  
Simultaneously, Harry and Sirius dived to the side as the creature lunged at them. Harry rolled into a clump of debris while Sirius rolled, cracking his head on a column.  
  
Dazed and confused, Sirius did not see the creature slinging toward him.  
  
"Hey!" Harry screamed in desperation, getting the snake's attention. "Why eat him when you can have me? The famous Boy-Who-Lived! Besides, Sirius is all tough and bony anyway!"  
  
The snake stopped as if weighing the possibilities.  
  
While it was doing this Harry's mind whirled, how was the blasted thing still alive? He tried to remember everything his professors had ever said about hybrid monsters. What had Binns said about the three- headed species of Chimera? Then it clicked. If the three-headed Chimera had three hearts, then this damn thing must have two hearts. A human one and a snake one. He needed to spear both to kill it completely.  
  
At that moment the snake made its decision and slithered toward Harry.  
  
Fear flooding his veins, Harry looked about wildly for his sword—it was tucked safely over the snake's monstrous tail. "Damn," he grumbled as he watched the snake edge closer—then he saw it. Right where the scales turned to flesh there was one scale missing, right where a snake's heart would be.  
  
Harry shouted in pain as the monster slithered on his leg, crushing it. His hand scratched up against something sharp. Sharp enough to draw blood.  
  
Harry's eyes darted to it as the monster's rancid breath filled his nostrils. A sharp silver point was peeking out from over a piece of debris. He grabbed it as the snake's scaled body slithered across his other leg. What had scratched him proved to be a jewel encrusted dagger.  
  
The creature hissed some sort of farewell that Harry did not hear because in one swift motion he plunged the dagger into the creature's exposed flesh, piercing its snake heart.  
  
The creature screamed in agony as it rolled to the side, breathing its last putrid breath.  
  
Without needing to check whether or not the damned monster was still breathing, Harry stumbled over to Sirius, collapsing next to him.  
  
"Hey," Sirius said weakly giving Harry a small smile, a bit of blood had stained his hair.  
  
Harry started to say "Hey," but was cut off by a voice he never expected to hear.  
  
"Oh my Lord!" gasped McGonagall.  
  
Sirius and Harry looked to the entryway; all the professors were peering into chamber taking in the dead monster and Harry and Sirius lying in a crumpled heap, chest heaving.  
  
Turning away from the professors, Harry whispered to Sirius, "Are you okay?"  
  
"I'm good, you?" Sirius mumbled.  
  
"Good," was the last word Harry managed to say before closing his eyes.  
  
"Good," Sirius repeated, also closing his eyes in exhaustion. "Good." 


	6. Late Night Lessons

Hello one and all!  
  
Sirius: And the people after all  
  
Whisp: Don't mind him, he has mental problems.  
  
Sirius: I do NOT! *bonks Whisp*  
  
Whisp: Ouch, that hurt. *bonks back*  
  
Sirius: *rubbing his head* Mean.  
  
Whisp: As you have eagerly a waited the lunatic calling begins in this chapter! So enjoy!  
  
Thank you to all my reviewers: potter_hal, Gia, surlyse, Jessica Black, vmr, Lavender Ice, Vegeta Jr., Potter-Pikachu, Tschubi-chan, Gina, Sarah, Alexa Black, Immia, summersun, Sandrine Black, sweets, Lin-z, Sophie W., Calder Lynch, Jocelyn Magus, and . . .  
  
A special thank you to Wolf of Solitude whose birthday is today so . . . HAPPY BIRTHDAY WOLFIE!  
  
Thank you to my betas Essence of Magic and Immia who are as crazy as I am!  
  
Sequel to Harry Potter and the Emerald Eye. (I suggest you read that first, but you don't have to, it's just a good idea.) Harry's in for quite a year when he starts seeing things that no one else can, is it a dream? Or is he really going crazy? Questions start arising like what did Voldemort do to his victim after he killed them? This has it all; mystery, insanity, a lot of Sirius and Remus, and everyone calls Harry a lunatic at least once! ;)  
  
Disclaimer - This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I own the plot and a few original things. The explanation Trelawney gives can be found at Dreampower Tarot. The passage Sirius reads is from The Lord of the Rings: Book I, The Fellowship of the Ring and any other excerpts, and Elven itself all belong to the master himself J. R. R. Tolkien. And Wonderland belongs to Lewis Carroll.  
  
  
  
Chapter 6: Late Night Lessons  
  
The story of what happened on Halloween night spread through the school like wildfire. Every time it was told the creature became another foot longer, and the battle became more daring. But every story-teller agreed on one thing; that Potter and Black fought as though they shared one brain.  
  
"What was that thing anyway?" Ron asked as he, Harry, Hermione, and Sirius strolled around the lake the early next morning.  
  
"It was an Ericthonius," Sirius said in a sleepy voice. "You'll learn about it and other multiple hearted creatures during the spring term."  
  
"Could you give us a preview?" Harry said hopefully as Apollo tried to steal his bagel. "Oh for the love of Quidditch," he grumbled, tearing the bagel in half and tossed one half of it as far as he could across the lawn. Apollo chased after it.  
  
Sirius chuckled, "I'd love to, but then you'd be late for your first class."  
  
Harry and Ron cringed prompting Hermione to say, "I hate to I told you so, but . . ."  
  
"Don't say it," Harry said sharply.  
  
"Not a word, Hermione," Ron warned.  
  
"What's going on?" asked Sirius confused.  
  
Harry and Ron gave Hermione pleading looks which she ignored. "Their first class is Divination," she explained.  
  
"So?" Sirius said blankly.  
  
Harry jumped forward, grabbing Hermione's sleeve and tugged her toward the castle.  
  
"Let go Harry, he was going to find out sooner or later," she snapped, yanking her sleeve out of Harry's grasp.  
  
"Find out what?" Sirius's eyes narrowed at Harry.  
  
"Harry's going to be cremated, that's all," Hermione snickered.  
  
"What?" Sirius laughed.  
  
Harry turned scarlet as Hermione explained that every year Professor Trelawney predicted that Harry would die and every year Harry survived.  
  
"The old bat is still doing those?" Sirius asked with raised eyebrows.  
  
"Old bat? You mean she was your professor too?" said Ron.  
  
Sirius shook his head, "No, came in a year after I graduated, but I came here to talk something over with Dumbledore and she had an observation so I got an extra hour of tea leaves and mystic triangles."  
  
"Fun, fun," Ron joked.  
  
"Yeah, I lasted forty-five minutes before wanting to make sure my I. Q. hadn't dropped ten points."  
  
Hermione nodded, turning to Harry and Ron, "I still don't understand why you don't just quit that class and take up something else."  
  
"What other class can you do the homework to meet the teacher's personal taste?" Ron demanded.  
  
Hermione shrugged, "But how many time can you predict that you were shredded to bits by a rabid hippogriff?"  
  
"Last time it was a mentally challenged Chimera," Harry grinned.  
  
Sirius snorted, "A what?!"  
  
"Last time I was ripped in half and my intentional tract was used as breakfast by a mentally challenged Chimera since he couldn't find any sausage."  
  
Hermione snickered, "I bet she loved that."  
  
"Got me an A," Harry looked at Sirius expectantly.  
  
"It was . . . creative," his godfather said with a crooked smile. "But tell me, where does a Chimera get sausage from?"  
  
"Jimmy Spleen?" Ron guessed.  
  
"The Lycia outlet," Harry added.  
  
"I heard that they . . ." Sirius began but was cut off by the gonging of a bell.  
  
"We're going to be late!" Hermione yelped.  
  
Sirius paled, digging in his pocket for something. "Wait, here," he handed them each a late pass 'just in case.'  
  
"Thanks!" they chorused before dashing up the castle steps. Once inside, Harry and Ron took the left staircase toward the North tower while Hermione hurried down the corridor toward Airthimancy.  
  
After a steep fifteen minute climb Harry and Ron finally emerged via a circular trapdoor to a room that looked like a cross between an attic and a coffee shop. Mismatched chairs and round tables covered with frilly cloths filled the room. The air reeked of perfumed oils which always made Harry sleepy.  
  
Professor Trelawney stood in the front of the room looking like an oversized, glittering dragon fly with all her bangles glistening in the candlelight. "Today, my children we will be learning about the mysterious world of the Tarot."  
  
"The what?!" Ron snapped in disbelief.  
  
"Tarot!" Parvati Patil squealed, bouncing in her seat at the word.  
  
Ron rolled his eyes, "Tarot, little pieces of cardboard with funny pictures on them. Fascinating."  
  
Harry snorted as Trelawney handed out little packs of cards. He opened his pack and his mouth dropped.  
  
"They're stark naked!" Ron said, jabbing at one card.  
  
Harry nodded, skimming through the deck, half of the cards showed naked people. He didn't realize that he was staring at the Water Goddess card until Trelawney announced that she was going to do a Tarot reading on him.  
  
"Bad luck mate," grinned Ron as Trelawney walked in her airy-fairy way over to Harry.  
  
"Your cards Mr. Potter," Trelawney said, holding her hand out for the cards.  
  
Harry handed them to her and watched as she shuffled them. He would have bet his bottom Knut that one of his cards would be the horrible, terrible, death card.  
  
Trelawney dealt his cards face down because she said it gave the fates one more chance to cast their magic on them. (Ron nearly choked himself trying not to laugh.)  
  
Harry watched as Trelawney flipped over the cards one by one.  
  
"Oh dear, the Gate, and the Reaper, not good, not good at all," she said showing Harry his cards.  
  
Harry seemed unphased as each card was worst than the last.  
  
With some fake trepidation Trelawney flipped over the last card and gasped.  
  
Harry's eyes narrowed in amazement.  
  
"H-how quite . . . er, odd," Trelawney said, voicing Harry's amazement. "It is the Child of Messengers."  
  
Everybody's mouth dropped, Trelawney had predicted something other than Harry's death.  
  
"This card shows that," Trelawney said in an oddly tight voice, "the child riding on the back of an eagle. We see this being in profile, sitting happily on the back of the huge bird and waving to us. This is the most human of the Messengers in appearance and has long natural light brown hair.  
  
"This image embodies all child or child-like contacts of air with the following qualities: quick to learn; eager to explore and achieve new horizons; talkative and bright; carrier of messengers for others; inspires through enthusiasm. The eagle indicates that this child has potent allies and hidden powers, and should never be underestimated." She finished in the same tight voice.  
  
"Now that sounds more like Harry," Ron said aloud not noticing that Harry's face was a deep red.  
  
Lavender and Parvati were whispering behind their backs at a record speed. "Professor," Parvati spoke up, "does this mean Harry has an Aura?"  
  
"Yes, my dears," said Trelawney in her usual mystical voice. "Mr. Potter has a great Aura about him, it is very strange. The fates have dealt him quite a hand, but very strange. Very, very strange."  
  
This statement was punctuated by the ringing off the bell.  
  
"Dismissed," Trelawney said, gliding back to her desk as the students gathered their books and left.  
  
As soon as they had reached the first landing, Ron snorted in disgust. "Let me see that card Harry."  
  
Confused, Harry handed him the Child of Messengers, whispering, "What did she mean by 'strange'."  
  
Ron examined the card closely before mimicking Trelawney's voice, "I do believe that this the fate's way of telling our esteemed Divination Professor to take a hike."  
  
~~~~  
  
Two days later, Harry found himself still thinking about that Tarot reading. It was  
  
the first time Trelawney hadn't found someway to predict his death.  
  
"Forget about it Harry, we all know she's three baby steps from the physic nuthouse," Ron had told him that morning during breakfast, but Harry couldn't forget.  
  
So there he was still wondering about it as he stared out the window during Defense Against the Dark Arts.  
  
Gudgeon was talking about how certain Dark Wizards had used dragons to destroy entire cities by hypnotizing them to think that the city was really a giant horde of gold, but to Harry this was only a dull buzzing in the back of his mind.  
  
What had she meant by she felt a great aura around him? Aura of what? Harry though, drumming his fingers on the desktop in thought. Strange things she had said, right? How strange?  
  
"Now, for you test next Friday," said Gudgeon, finally breaking through Harry's wall of thought. "You will need to copy the notes on the board."  
  
Sighing, Harry filled his quill, unrolled his parchment and turned toward the board to copy the notes. His quill fell to the floor.  
  
Harry's eyes had landed a small section of wall. It was about two and a half feet wide between the top of the board and the ceiling. It was white but yellowed in some spots with age. Harry had never paid much attention to it before but now he could not take his eyes off it.  
  
On that small section of wall, exactly one inch apart, eyes rolled over white, tongues lolling out, with blood dripping down their foreheads were heads. The heads of all the professors.  
  
Harry must have screamed because he felt dozens of pairs of eyes staring at him.  
  
"Mr. Potter?" Gudgeon called sounding as if he was miles away.  
  
Harry gibbered senselessly, jumping to his feet, and pointing at the heads that loomed over the blackboard.  
  
"What?" Gudgeon asked at the same time Gudgeon's head opened its mouth mouthing what.  
  
"Heads!" Harry screamed.  
  
"Heads?"  
  
Harry looked at Gudgeon, still pointing at the space of wall above the board, "Dead! You, everybody! Dead!"  
  
"What?" Gudgeon sputtered.  
  
"The heads above the board!" Harry shouted urgently. "Don't you see them?!"  
  
Gudgeon shook his head. A chill ran up Harry's spine.  
  
"You don't see them? But! Ron! You see them, right?"  
  
"Er, no Harry," Ron whispered.  
  
Harry whirled around to face the class, "Does anyone?!"  
  
The entire class shook their heads.  
  
Harry started to tremble; no one saw the heads but him. He glanced over his shoulder his eyes met the cold, lifeless ones of Dumbledore.  
  
Without another word he ran from the room. Alarm bells went off in his head like fireworks, Tell Sirius! Tell Dumbledore! Tell Remus! Even tell Hedwig if she'll listen!  
  
Harry ran out the door and unto the grounds. Not too far off he saw Sirius sitting on the ground surrounded by a gaggle of third years; he raced toward them his heart in his throat.  
  
Sirius looked up to see his godson running toward him, looking like he had seen a Death Eater. "Be right back," he muttered to the third years as he got to his feet. "Harry?"  
  
"Sirius!" he godson shouted his voice tight and terrified.  
  
Sirius covered the distance between them in two long strides. "What's wrong" he asked placing his hands on Harry's shaking shoulders.  
  
"S-Sirius," Harry's voice trembled, "D-dead?"  
  
"Dead?"  
  
"E-everybody d-dead."  
  
Confused, Sirius tightened his grip on Harry's shoulders, "What do you mean buddy?"  
  
Harry whimpered as he felt the world tilt on its axis, everything was swimming in and out of focus, his stomach churned. Before his legs gave way he shouted, "I saw the professors' head above the Defense board dead!"  
  
Then the world went black.  
  
~~~~  
  
Harry's eyelids fluttered as he felt somebody run a finger across his scar. He cracked one eye open but slammed it shut again; pain signals went off inside his head like fireworks.  
  
"Hey," a soft voice called.  
  
Harry turned away from it, but was pulled back by a firm hand. "My head hurts," he mumbled.  
  
"Mary Poppins is mixing up something for that as we speak."  
  
"Who?!" Harry said.  
  
Sirius smirked, "My new name for Madam Pomfrey, although she's far from a cheery disposition."  
  
Harry smiled slightly as Sirius handed him his glasses. Harry put them on and looked up at his godfather expectantly.  
  
"You fainted," he replied blatantly. "Something about heads and dead professors."  
  
"Well, when you're expected to be the star of the class . . ."  
  
"Harry."  
  
Harry sighed, "You know already?"  
  
"Was flying around the faculty room like bees around honey," Sirius muttered.  
  
"I know what I saw Sirius, I'm not lying. You believe right?"  
  
Sirius's eyes went to the ceiling.  
  
Harry's own eyes narrowed, "Sirius? You do, don't you?"  
  
A long, uncomfortable silence passed between them, a kind that made the hairs on the back of Harry's neck stand on end.  
  
"Siri?" he whispered.  
  
"I . . .," Sirius stopped as Madam Pomfrey bustled in, a goblet in hand.  
  
"Well, it's about time," the matron huffed at while making shooing motions at Sirius. "Now that your godson is up you may leave, Mr. Black."  
  
Without a word, Sirius stood up and left.  
  
"Well, that's miracle," Madam Pomfrey muttered as she watched the door swing closed on its hinges.  
  
"Yeah," Harry said half-heartedly as Madam Pomfrey handed him the goblet filled with a slushy red liquid that smelled sickening sweet. "Do I have to take this?"  
  
"No," she replied, "you can just survive the night with a migraine."  
  
Harry swirled the potion around once before shutting his eyes and downing it in one gulp.  
  
"There, that wasn't so bad," Madam Pomfrey said while taking the empty goblet from Harry.  
  
"No, it was horrible," he grumbled, standing up shakily. "Can I go?"  
  
Madam Pomfrey looked down her nose at him, "Fine, I'll be seeing you again soon enough no doubt."  
  
That was good enough for Harry, in the blink of an eye he was out of the hospital wing and down the corridor. Halfway down the hall he spun around when he heard two voices call . . .  
  
"Harry!"  
  
Ron and Hermione ran up to him, their chests heaving.  
  
"I'm I that late for dinner?" grinned Harry.  
  
Ron, trying to catch his breath, could only shake his head.  
  
"No, not exactly," Hermione said, rocking on the backs of her heels. "But I was thinking that maybe we should eat outside today."  
  
With raised eyebrow Harry asked, "Outside?"  
  
"Yeah," Ron gasped, "El' fresco?"  
  
"Okay," Harry said offhandedly. "Just let me get my food."  
  
Ron stepped in front of him, "No, let's go outside first."  
  
"I'm sure the house elves will bring it to us," Hermione pointed out.  
  
"Is this the girl who started S. P. E. W.?" Harry said before pushing passed Ron. "Don't worry; I'll be in and out in five minutes." With that Harry walked briskly into the Great Hall. "See," he said to Ron and Hermione as they came up behind him, "nothing out of the ordinary."  
  
Ron nodded weakly as the usual dinnertime din reached his ears.  
  
Harry reached the Gryffindor table and grabbed an empty plate, spooning some mash potatoes and mushrooms on it. "Hey Dean, pass the pork chops."  
  
Now this was a simple question, but the effect it had on the hall was far from simple or ordinary, the noisy hall had gone completely silent. Everybody turned toward to the Gryffindor table as Harry's face turned the color of a Quaffle.  
  
A faint mumbling and then snickering could be heard from the Slytherin table as Harry looked at them. More particularly one of them. Draco Malfoy.  
  
Malfoy smirked, "So, Skeeter was right Potter? You are really off your rocker? You're a raving lunatic!" The whole table cackled maliciously, shouting, "Potter's off his rocker!"  
  
Harry's eyes flashed dangerously at Malfoy's laughing form.  
  
"Think fast Malfoy!"  
  
A mucky, white glob skyrocketed at Malfoy's face, hitting him dead on.  
  
"FOOD FIGHT!"  
  
~~~  
  
As every good prankster knows you never stay long at the scene of the crime, only long enough to see the effects of your masterful work. And that was just what Harry did.  
  
He ascended the stairs to his dorm, complete with a blob of applesauce on his shirt and smear of ketchup on his cheek as a badge of courage and a smirk. He entered a deserted dorm room feeling oddly exhausted. After kicking off his sneakers, Harry pulled back the scarlet bed curtains and gasped.  
  
On his pillow lay a grubby piece of parchment tied up with a red ribbon. Now to anyone else it would seem like a normal scrap of dirty parchment but to Harry it more precious than gold. It was the Marauder's Map.  
  
Harry picked up the map with trembling hands; he never thought he'd see it again. He had loaned it to (who he believed to be) Mad-Eye Moody, but Moody was an imposter who had been working for Voldemort. When Moody's office had been cleaned out Harry was sure the map had been either thrown out or destroyed. But here it was in his hands . . . but just to make sure Harry tapped it with his wand whispering, "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good."  
  
Lines spread across the surface of the parchment with helpful spots that pointed out exactly where the secret passages were. Another line showed up on the map, a bright, bold, red one that lead to a section of Hogwarts that Harry didn't know existed. He touched were the line stop and the surface of the map rippled. The map disappeared and was replaced with a message written in bright, bold red ink:  
  
BE THERE TONIGHT.  
  
"What?" Harry asked himself as the writing was replaced by the map again. He study the map for several minutes before he heard what sounded like a heard of mustangs galloping up the stairs. The other boys were coming.  
  
Quickly whispering, "Mischief managed," wiping the map and shoved it under his pillow right before the door was flung open and four boys with various food particles stuck to them tumbled in.  
  
~~~~  
  
That night Harry desperately tried to fall asleep but by the time he reached the one thousandth and twenty sixth sheep he gave up. Quickly, he pulled a robe over his pajamas, grabbed the invisibility cloak and the map, and went off into the castle.  
  
The map's directions took him to a part of the castle that he had never been to before. The walls were covered with oil paintings of forest animals; wolves, bears, and unicorns. Then, suddenly, the directional line stopped, leaving Harry in front of a painting of a black wolf sleeping in front of a stone cave.  
  
Frowning, Harry thought as he consulted the map again. A speech bubble appeared next to his dot: Sothis.  
  
"Sothis," he whispered.  
  
The dozing wolf yawned, getting to its feet, and stepping away from the cave entrance, revealing a portrait hole.  
  
Hesitantly, Harry scrambled through the hole, tumbling out the other end. Getting up, he saw the wolf lie in front of the entrance again, blocking it.  
  
While pocketing the map, Harry took a look around the circular room; it was set up like a smaller version of the Gryffindor common room except it was an absolute mess. Papers, books, clothes, and quills were scattered every where. Harry noticed that he was standing on a piece of paper with red marks scrawled all over it in a familiar hand. Sirius's.  
  
He knelt down to retrieve the paper when he noticed a ray of light coming from a door at the other end of the room that was slightly ajar. He suddenly felt like he had entered Wonderland and any moment a scrap of paper would float out with COME IN written on it .  
  
Making a quick decision, Harry slipped into the study, not wanting Sirius to know that he was there. He padded over to the winged armchair, and started to read over Sirius shoulder, the language the scroll was written in was foreign to him, but the letters were fiery.  
  
"You know better than to go sneaking around," Sirius said quietly, his eyes never leaving the scroll.  
  
Harry jumped. "How did you know it was me?" he demanded.  
  
"Because you are the only person who doesn't stomp in here like they own the place," Sirius flicked his wand and a chair came skidding over. "Join the party."  
  
Harry sat down, and was able to get a clearer look at the parchment; he still couldn't make a single word out. "You can read that?"  
  
"Elven isn't hard once you get use to it."  
  
Harry nodded, and cocked his head to one side. "What's it say?"  
  
Sirius grinned as if in on a private joke. "It says:  
  
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them.  
  
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them  
  
Three rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,  
  
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,  
  
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,  
  
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne  
  
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.  
  
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,  
  
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them,  
  
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.  
  
"Recognize it?" Sirius asked curiously.  
  
"It's from the Lord of the Rings, right?" Harry said thinking back to when he was younger used to steal Dudley's books, (which Dudley never read) and read until he couldn't keep his eyes open.  
  
"Supposedly this is the original text Tolkien copied from," Sirius said, running a hand over the scroll as if caressing it.  
  
"No way!" Harry gasped.  
  
"Yes way!"  
  
"Then that would mean . . ." Harry trailed off.  
  
Sirius nodded.  
  
"Elven is real?!"  
  
Sirius nodded again.  
  
Harry's eyes lit up, "Can you teach me to read some? Please?"  
  
Sirius shrugged, "Sure, if you like."  
  
Harry gave Sirius a huge smile, "Thanks Sirius!"  
  
"It's nothing, really," Sirius shrugged again, trying to sound modest. "When do you want your first lesson?"  
  
"Is now okay?"  
  
Sirius looked at his watch, "It's late."  
  
"Please?"  
  
"All right, go get me that book. Yeah, the one with green cover."  
  
Harry obediently got the book, handing it to Sirius before sitting down again. For the next hour or so Sirius taught Harry to say several easy words.  
  
"It's not that late," Harry protested when Sirius said that that was it for tonight.  
  
"It's past three, you need to get some sleep," Sirius said, keeping his voice firm.  
  
Harry didn't want to leave, but he knew better than to protest.  
  
"See you at twelve, tomorrow night?" Sirius said while placing the book back on the shelf.  
  
"Tomorrow? Really?" asked Harry hopefully.  
  
"Yeah," Sirius grinned.  
  
  
  
This nightly routine went on for several days without any inferences. Harry was picking up on Elven very quickly, much to Sirius's amazement.  
  
"I still feel like I'm back in first year primary," Harry sighed, closing a book while yawning.  
  
"You're doing very well Harry," Sirius said, not looking up from the stack of papers he was grading  
  
"I still can't translate the last sentence though," Harry groaned, opening the book again.  
  
Sirius got up from his desk and walked over to Harry, "What do you think it says?"  
  
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?" Harry grinned weakly.  
  
Sirius smiled, but said, "No, try again."  
  
"I can't."  
  
Sirius shook his head, "It's not a question if whether you can or you can't, it is a question of whether or not you want to."  
  
"I want to, but it's . . . hard."  
  
Sirius pulled his chair next to Harry's, "I'll give you a hand."  
  
"It's this one," Harry said, pointing out the sentence to Sirius. "Ennya Durin Atan Moria: pedo mellon minno."  
  
Sirius burst out laughing.  
  
"What?" Harry asked expectantly.  
  
"You've read The Fellowship of the Rings, right?" Sirius said once he had gained control over himself.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Remember the inscription on the Doors of Durin?"  
  
"Yeah, speak friend and enter or something like that, right?"  
  
"And what is the Elven word for friend?"  
  
"Mellon," Harry said simply.  
  
Sirius pointed at the sentence again.  
  
Harry's eyes widened, "Oh, I'm an idiot."  
  
Sirius smiled, "No you're not. You're just tired."  
  
Harry gave him a sleepy smile.  
  
Sirius smirked, looking at his watch, "Geez, it is late I should have told you to scat hours ago."  
  
"I'm not that tired," but Harry's statement lost some of its meaning since he yawned halfway through it.  
  
"Yes you are, and besides you have a match tomorrow and I'm sure Katie would be thrilled if you fell asleep on your broom."  
  
Nodding, Harry gathered up his things and woke up Apollo. "Sirius?" he asked before leaving.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"You're going to come tomorrow, right?"  
  
"Maybe, if I get through this mountain of tests," Sirius gestured to the stack of tests he still had to correct, but noticed the look of disappointment on Harry's face. "Of course I'll be there."  
  
"Really? I mean you don't have to come if you don't want to, it's just that . . ."  
  
"You want me to know you're making good use of the Firebolt?"  
  
"Yes," Harry grinned playfully. "See you tomorrow then?"  
  
"Don't look for me, look for the Snitch!"  
  
"I will," Harry promised before scrambling out the portrait hole. 


	7. An Unexpected Meeting

Whisp: *walks in looking nervous, compulsively straightening her tie* Er, hello everybody.  
  
Sirius: *follows Whisp in, also compulsively straightening his tie* Hi!  
  
Whisp: Umm . . . er . . . have any of you ever tried to write a Quidditch match? It's a lot harder than it looks, trust me!  
  
Sirius: Therefore this chapter is quite short, it will probably one of the shortest ones in the entire story.  
  
Whisp: Now, that are done with all the notices unto the thank you-s:  
  
Keara Jordan: I thought that too! Sirius did remind of Strider and Harry of Frodo, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that. Thanks for reviewing The Flu and All in the Family also!  
  
Cg: Sorry, that is classified information.  
  
Jocelyn Magus: I will, sorry school interferes with my writing too much, and here's some more. Enjoy!  
  
Tschubi-chan: Guilty, I do have a thing for the LotR, especially Aragorn. Hehe. Nothing in my stories is ever ordinary; you should know that by now. (  
  
Sophie W.: That seems to be the recurring line in most of my reviews lately. But don't I always make up for the long wait with nice long chapters?  
  
sweets: Of course we're going to see Pitch Black again; we are also going to see why Dumbledore gave Sirius the Care of Magical Creature position but not in this chapter. As for the Quidditch match, I'll let you survey the damage. The rest is classified information, sorry.  
  
Wolfie: Thanks to you my house no longer has doors! I had to crash my way through them because my head was too big! Thank you for all your amazing praise, my ego loves you.  
  
summersun: Harry thought it was.  
  
Shadow: *glomps* I missed you Shadow! It's been ages since I've seen a review from you. Don't you disappear like that again!  
  
Libby: Don't worry, I won't stop.  
  
Sandrine Black: I hope you enjoy this one too! Harry's adventures haven't even started yet. ;)  
  
Lavander Ice: This wait wasn't _too_ long was it? See, I'm getting back on track.  
  
Miranda Flairgold: I'll see what I can do about the frogs.  
  
vmr: Thank you!  
  
Special Thanks: Thank you my amazing betas: Essence of Magic and Immia.  
  
Sequel to Harry Potter and the Emerald Eye. (I suggest you read that first, but you don't have to, it's just a good idea.) Harry's in for quite a year when he starts seeing things that no one else can, is it a dream? Or is he really going crazy? Questions start arising like what did Voldemort do to his victim after he killed them? This has it all; mystery, insanity, a lot of Sirius and Remus, and everyone calls Harry a lunatic at least once! ;)  
  
Disclaimer - This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I own the plot and a few original things. Elven itself all belongs to the master himself J. R. R. Tolkien.  
  
Chapter 7: An Unexpected Meeting  
  
The wind whipped passed Harry's face as he flew above the crowd. A blaze of red and green shouted on their teams below him as his sharp eyes scanned the field for a speck of gold.  
  
"Nice steal by Katie Bell of Gryffindor," Lee Jordon commentated from below.  
  
Cheers from the crowd echoed in Harry's ear as . . .  
  
There! At the foot of one of the Slytherin's goal post! The Golden Snitch!  
  
Harry shot at it. He was gaining ground quickly, Malfoy was miles behind him. Closer and closer until it was within his reach—his hand was about to close around the cool metal of the ball . . .  
  
"HARRY WAKE UP!"  
  
Harry shot up in bed. His curtains were pulled back to reveal a shining sun and the blurry outline of a lanky, red headed boy.  
  
"Here," Ron said handing Harry his glasses.  
  
"What time is it?" muttered Harry, shoving the glasses on.  
  
"Time for breakfast, and then game time," said Ron, emphasizing the last two words.  
  
Getting the drift, Harry bounded out of bed, changed, grabbed his Firebolt and Quidditch robes, and followed Ron downstairs.  
  
They met Hermione at the breakfast table, a book propped up against a milk jug as usual. She pointed to two plates, already piled high with bacon and eggs.  
  
Obviously this was meant for Harry who didn't eat anything before Quidditch matches, end term exams, tasks; any scheduled life risking events.  
  
Harry picked at the food while Katie dashed back and forth behind him urging the team to eat.  
  
"Where's Longo?" she demanded suddenly. "He should be eating with the team."  
  
"He's down there," George supplied pointing with his fork.  
  
Harry look to where George was pointing, down at the very end of the table looking very much like Hermione with a Quidditch magazine propped up against a milk jug was Norman Longo.  
  
Katie pursed her lips before shouting, "Team! Locker rooms!"  
  
  
  
Fifteen minutes later the Gryffindor Quidditch team emerged onto the Quidditch pitch. The stadium burst into cheers as Lee Jordan announced them.  
  
"Bell, Spinnet, Johnson, Weasley, Weasley, Longo, and Potter. As you may remember Potter's performance against the Hungarian Horntail last was perhaps the most amazing flying—"  
  
"Jordan," McGonagall sighed.  
  
"Er, sorry Professor, anyway let's just say that the Slytherin's Seeker better watch out."  
  
Madam Hooch who was refereeing told Katie and Slytherin's new captain Adrian Pucey to shake hands. Pucey looked more like he was trying to break Katie hand than shake it.  
  
"On my whistle you will mount your brooms and kick off," Madam Hooch said, "Three . . . two . . . one."  
  
TWEET!  
  
"And the game begins. The Quaffle is taken immediately by Katie Bell of Gryffindor—nice pass to Angelina Johnson—back to Bell—now to Spinnet—watch out for that Bludger!" Lee screamed in the megaphone.  
  
Alicia loop-a-looped, avoiding the Bludger by mere inches but dropping the Quaffle. George sped after the Bludger, smacking it toward Pucey.  
  
"Slytherin in possession—no! it's knocked away by a Bludger—Gryffindor back in possession—Johnson to Spinnet to Bell and back again, look at that passing! Better yet look at those—"  
  
"JORDAN!"  
  
"Sorry! Sorry Professor! Lost my head for a moment!" Lee shouted as McGonagall beat him over the head with her own megaphone. "Ouch! Have you been lifting weights? No, no, that won't be necessary; I'll get back to the game. Riggs of Slytherin takes the Quaffle—he's is speeding up the field—somebody knock him off his broom already—thank you! Nice Bludger work by either Fred or George Weasley—Spinnet gets the Quaffle—passes to Johnson who passes to Bell—SCORE! GRYFFINDOR SCORES!"  
  
Harry grinned as the crowd burst into applause. He flew around the field once at top speed to let off his feelings.  
  
"You go just do that Potter," a drawling voice said as Slytherin took the Quaffle.  
  
"Malfoy," Harry growled, concentrating on the match once again. Due to a letter, and a large donation to the school Malfoy had become the Slytherin seeker since their second year. He had never beat Harry in a match.  
  
"Yes, you go show off your broom while I _actually_ play," sneered Malfoy as Angelina scored another goal. "How much did pretty boy pay for that broom anyway?"  
  
"Pretty boy?" Harry said blankly, his eyes not leaving the match.  
  
"Our so called Care of Magical Creatures teacher," said Malfoy.  
  
Harry eyes flashed, "Leave Sirius out of this."  
  
"Oh, did I strike a nerve?"  
  
"No—Go Norman!" Harry yelled as Longo pulled off a spectacular save.  
  
Malfoy chuckled, "Another one."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Oh," said Malfoy, "you don't know do you?"  
  
"Know what?"  
  
Sniggering, Malfoy whispered, "His mother also died saving him from Voldemort."  
  
WHOOSH!  
  
Harry was streaking up the field straight at the Gryffindor goal posts. He shot past Riggs who was trying to score a goal, straight through one of the hoops. He could hear Malfoy behind him, but his eyes were focused on the golden, winged, walnut-sized ball only a few feet away. He shot forward, closing his hands around the cold metal ball.  
  
WHUMP!  
  
Harry spun around just in time to see the Quaffle bounce off of Malfoy's nose. Longo turned to Harry and smirked.  
  
"We won," Longo said simply over the roar of the crowd.  
  
"Yeah," Harry grinned. "C'mon, let's go fly our victory lap."  
  
Harry and Longo glided down still grinning. When they landed they were attacked by a sea of red. Katie was jumping around screaming, "We won! We won!"  
  
Harry was being hugged, and backslapped by anyone and everyone. He scanned the crowd for one particular face.  
  
"Ruff!"  
  
His head jerked toward the stands; there stood a mammoth black dog wagging his tail happily.  
  
Harry's grin broadened.  
  
"PARTY!"  
  
~*~  
  
Later that night, well after McGonagall had come and broken up the party, Harry sat in Sirius's study, bathed in warm candle light, reading an ancient Elven text.  
  
"Sirius, how old is this again?" he asked.  
  
Sirius who had his feet on his desk, looked up from the report he reading, "At least a thousand years old, why?"  
  
"Somebody wrote Snape is an ugly git in the margin."  
  
"They had some very good seers back then," replied Sirius trying to remain dignified and failing miserably.  
  
Harry put down the text and looked at his godfather sternly.  
  
"Yes?" Sirius said.  
  
"What did you think of the match?"  
  
"It was good."  
  
Harry rolled his eyes, "Come on Sirius, you know what I mean."  
  
"Oh," Sirius said thoughtfully. "The Chasers were superb, the Beaters were fantastic the Keeper was great, and you my dear boy were spectacular."  
  
Harry's eyes lit up.  
  
"Better?"  
  
"Much."  
  
"Good. Now, you bed."  
  
"But—"  
  
"If McGonagall knew I kept you up this late she would have my head on a silver platter."  
  
  
  
When Harry returned to the common room it was deserted. The fire had died down to embers casting shadows on the walls. Harry, suddenly feeling exhausted, dragged himself toward the staircase and his warm bed.  
  
"Went for a late night walk?"  
  
Harry spun around.  
  
Seated in the nearest armchair with a copy of Quidditch Through the Ages open on his lap was Norman Longo.  
  
"You!" Harry snapped.  
  
"Yep, it's me," Longo said cheekily.  
  
"What are you doing up?"  
  
"I could ask you the same thing."  
  
Harry narrowed his eyes at Longo as if daring him to ask.  
  
"Not that I'm going to . . ." Longo trailed off.  
  
"Well if you're not, I'm going to bed, see you in the morning." Harry turned toward the staircase again, just as he was above to leave Longo spoke up again.  
  
"Er, Harry?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"I know this is going to sound . . ."  
  
Harry turned around again and stared at Longo, "Sound what?"  
  
"Stupid, but do you know how to do a Woollongong Shimmy?"  
  
Harry's eye brow arched, "But that's a Chaser move . . ."  
  
"I know, I know, but I saw a Keeper do it once and worked really well so I thought I could try and do it too, but . . . it's harder than it looks."  
  
"Don't I know it, ever try a Wronski Feint? Now, those _are_ hard," Harry said.  
  
"I know you know what is really easy though."  
  
"What?"  
  
"The Starfish and Stick, it has to be the easiest move even though it looks so hard."  
  
"Just as long as you can swing back on your broom," Harry pointed out.  
  
Longo nodded, laughing.  
  
"I liked how you hit Malfoy with the Quaffle today, right on the nose."  
  
"Bull's eye!"  
  
They laughed.  
  
They chatted for a while before the clock chimed causing them both to yawn.  
  
"It's late," Harry muttered sleepily. "I'm going to bed, coming?"  
  
Longo shook his head, "Nah, I want to finish this thing for Gudgeon."  
  
"Okay see you in the morning," Harry rose to his feet and started to head up the staircase.  
  
"Harry?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
""Elen sila lumenn omentilmo." 


	8. It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like . . .

A/n: This chapter is pure comedy so no one's head is going to be in a . . .  
  
Sirius: Necktie!  
  
Whisp: Who invited you?  
  
Sirius: Necktie!  
  
Whisp: A necktie invited you?  
  
Sirius: Necktie!  
  
Whisp: What? You lost me.  
  
Sirius: Necktie!  
  
Whisp: While I go and try to figure out Sirius's psyche, how about you go read the chapter?  
  
Thank you:  
  
Miranda Flairgold: I'm going to answer what Longo said once and once only, so you get the long awaited answer! Drum roll please! *Sirius bangs pot* Thank you! Norman Longo said: "A star shines upon the hour of our meeting."  
  
Hound of Death: How's my most annoying reviewer? I mean that in the best sense, ya know. Ah, the eternal question: Who is the better author, J. K. Rowling or J. R. R. Tolkien?  
  
Eva Phoenix Potter: Yup, that was Elven, my accent marks didn't show up though so it's not politically correct. For what Longo said check Miranda Flairgold's review. Writing a Quidditch match? May the Force be with you!  
  
WhiteIckyThing: Get up here you! *drags WhiteIckyThing on stage* You get the gold star this chapter! * There it is. That website you gave me just about saved my life, thank you so much! And you also translated what Longo said correctly!  
  
Wolf of Solitude: You found me out, you clever wolf you! *rips off disguise* I REALLY am J. K. Rowling! I'm writing this amazingly plot twisted story just to entertain you before book five comes out, aren't I nice to my fans? *Sirius walks in and rips off J. K. Rowling mask to reveal a teenage girl* Okay, okay, I'm not really JKR, but I did have fun pretending for a minute there.  
  
Longo is oozing mystery? I like that! Longo is around for the long haul. You'll be seeing a lot more of him in future chapters.  
  
As for Sirius, you'll be getting your fill of him and Remus in the next few chapters. Harry bashing comes later so get your Kleenex ready!  
  
Shadow: Put down the Coke can! I'm working on it! I am! Just put down the coke can! Or no more Book of Ages either.  
  
vmr: Thank you!  
  
Lavander Ice: Writing a Quidditch match, poor Ice! Longo is, in a nutshell, an enigma.  
  
Keara Jordan: I love writing Lee, he's a lot like me when I have to commentate something (I'm forced to do the boy's basketball games sometimes) SIRIUS and AGAGORN and HARRY and FRODO forever! Personally, I think McGonagall is going to cry when the twins and Lee graduate and she can't yell at them anymore.  
  
tima: Thank you! Isn't Sirius wonderful?  
  
T. Cairpre: How ya doin' buddy? Yes, you are correct and you get a gold star *! *sticks gold star on T. Cairpre's forehead* There you go, my Elven expert!  
  
Tschubi-chan: So true about Quidditch matches. Aragorn is my favorite too, followed by Frodo, and . . . .  
  
Sandrine Black: Thanks! Please direct you attention to Miranda Flairgold's thank you for the translation to that.  
  
Shaynie: Thank you!  
  
Thank you to my betas: Essence of Magic, Immia, and sweets! They all helped me come up with . . . well you'll see in the chapter!  
  
Special Thank You: A special thank you to sweets who co-wrote this chapter with me! If it wasn't for her I'd still be working on it! How about a round of applause for sweets! *applauds*  
  
Sequel to Harry Potter and the Emerald Eye. (I suggest you read that first, but you don't have to, it's just a good idea.) Harry's in for quite a year when he starts seeing things that no one else can, is it a dream? Or is he really going crazy? Questions start arising like what did Voldemort do to his victim after he killed them? This has it all; mystery, insanity, a lot of Sirius and Remus, and everyone calls Harry a lunatic at least once! ;)  
  
Disclaimer - This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I own the plot and a few original things. Elven itself all belongs to the master himself J. R. R. Tolkien.  
  
Chapter 8: It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like . . .  
  
There was a definite winter feeling in the Hogwart's air. Perhaps, it was the fact that the ground was covered with a thick layer of snow or that whenever they left Potions their skin was blue. Whatever it may have been, the snow or the skin, there were two things that were certain: Christmas was coming and Harry Potter was in a rut.  
  
This was made very obvious to Ron as he watched Harry pace the length of the dorm room for the hundredth time.  
  
"Ron!" the raven-haired boy said suddenly, a desperate edge to his voice. "You have to help me!"  
  
Ron looked up from the magazine his was reading, "Why don't you just ask him?"  
  
"Oh, sure, that'll go over brilliantly," snarled Harry. "Try again."  
  
"Well, if you're that desperate there's always the old standby."  
  
Harry stopped short "Standby? What standby?"  
  
Ron turned another page before saying, "A seasonal necktie."  
  
Harry flopped onto his bed and threw a pillow over his face groaning "I'm doomed!"  
  
"Harry?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"You're always doomed."  
  
Harry threw a pillow at him.  
  
Ron dodged the pillow, still smirking.  
  
"Or a box of seasonal cond—"  
  
"No, I don't that'll go over well either." Harry said quickly. "What's that issue about?" he asked, pointing to the magazine.  
  
"What does it take? Ten ways of improving your performance and your way to the pros," said Ron imitating Ludo Bagman's announcer voice, handing Harry the magazine.  
  
Harry took the magazine and started skimmed it before his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.  
  
"What is it?" Ron inquired, scrambling on Harry's bed.  
  
"Look!" whispered Harry, pointing at an ad.  
  
Ron's eyes widened as he read the ad, whispering "What would you do for that?"  
  
"Anything."  
  
~~~  
  
Harry stared morosely at the falling snow the next day; he still hadn't found a gift for Sirius.  
  
"It can't be that difficult Harry." Hermione said as Ron's queen knocked out her knight. "Just get him a nice flannel shirt or a necktie."  
  
Harry let out a strangled cry, "He doesn't even wear neckties!"  
  
Ron chuckled while Hermione rolled her eyes "I was only trying to help."  
  
"I know," said Harry sullenly. "Thanks anyway."  
  
"You know Harry—check—why don't you go ask Lupin?" suggested Ron, surveying the chessboard. "He probably knows what Sirius likes better than us."  
  
Harry's eyes lit up as he dashed up to the dormitory and back down a second later, Marauder's Map in hand, yelling "Thanks Ron!" over his shoulder.  
  
"Checkmate." Ron said as he took Hermione's king.  
  
Harry wandered down several corridors; the map said Lupin was in his old office. When he reached the door he knocked tenitively.  
  
"Come in!" called Lupin.  
  
Harry entered quietly, suddenly feeling very self-conscious.  
  
"Hello Harry." Lupin said cheerfully putting down the book he was reading. "What can I help you with today?"  
  
"Er . . . I, er . . . it's about Sirius." Harry blurted out.  
  
"What has the old dog done this time?" Lupin sighed with a smile.  
  
"Nothing, it just . . . I . . . it's me!" Harry babbled, pacing the office. "Well, it's for . . . I really want to get him something special because he's, like my parent . . . like my dad in a way, you know? And I've tried, I really have! And everybody says just get him a seasonal necktie, but—"  
  
"Sirius doesn't wear neckties." Lupin interrupted.  
  
"Exactly! And then Hermione says get him a flannel shirt—"  
  
"He wears those . . . sometimes."  
  
Groaning, Harry continued, "And then Ron said to talk to you and that's why I'm here. Help me, I'm desperate!" He collapsed in the nearest chair and stared pleadingly at Lupin.  
  
Lupin was silent for a minute or two before saying, "Harry, I've known Sirius since he was eleven and the first thing I ever learned about him was that he was and still is a complete bookworm."  
  
Harry burst out laughing," Sirius?! My godfather Sirius? A bookworm? Ha!"  
  
"He doesn't seem the type, does he? But he is. He's very smart, don't forget that."  
  
"I know, he has got to be." Harry said quietly.  
  
"Why do you say that?" asked Lupin, interested.  
  
Harry gulped, "You won't tell him I told you this, it's suppose to a secret."  
  
"Cross my heart, may I tickle a sleeping dragon if I lie." Lupin promised.  
  
Leaning across the desk, Harry said just above a whisper "He's teaching me Elven."  
  
Lupin's face broke into a grin, "Well, Harry I think we've just solved your problem."  
  
"We have?" Harry said blankly.  
  
"Think, what does Sirius obsess over?"  
  
"Me." Harry muttered dully. Sirius could be overly protective at times.  
  
"Try again."  
  
"Girls? I can't get him a girl! That's illegal!"  
  
Lupin shook his head, "No, no! Well, yes he is obsessed with girls, but try again."  
  
"His hair?"  
  
Lupin chuckled, "Also true, but no."  
  
"Er, um," Harry searched Lupin's face for a clue. "Elven?"  
  
"You're getting warmer."  
  
Harry sighed, trying to clear his mind. Sirius was obsessed with Elven and he was a bookworm so . . . he got it. "He's obsessed with—"  
  
"Exactly," Lupin grinned.  
  
"Thanks Professor! You're the best!" Harry said, sprinting out of the room and right into Sirius. "Sorry, Sirius! See you later!"  
  
"Where's the fire?" Sirius shouted after his godson, before stomping into Lupin's office, looking decidedly grumpy. He collapsed in the same chair Harry had been sitting in.  
  
"What have you been doing?" Lupin asked curiously, observing that Sirius's hair was covered with snow.  
  
"Same thing I've been doing for the past week. Combing Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley for a Christmas present for Harry," Sirius grumbled, shaking the snow from his hair.  
  
Lupin shook his head, smirking, "Let me guess, no luck?"  
  
"None whatsoever," Sirius buried his head in his hands. "I never thought this would be so bloody hard."  
  
"Why do you say that? I'm sure Harry will like anything you get him. You've never missed yet."  
  
"There's a first time for everything." Sirius said wryly. "And at this rate he'll end up with a seasonal necktie."  
  
"How about something that we know Harry's crazy about?" Lupin suggested, holding back a laugh.  
  
"Cho Chang?"  
  
Lupin's eyes widened, before banging his head against the desk. "Try again Padfoot!" he said in mid-bang.  
  
"Ginny Weasley? I thought Harry's just her friend."  
  
"She is, and try again!" growled Lupin, deciding that Sirius and his godson were definitely cut from the same cloth.  
  
"Quidditch! That has to be it!" Sirius said with hopeful triumph.  
  
"Since the girls are out," he muttered under his breath.  
  
"He does have a brain!" cried Lupin joyfully, conjuring a mortarboard and jamming it on Sirius's head.  
  
"So that's what's up there" Sirius said sarcastically, patting the cap. "But after Pitch Black who knows what's left." He added with a bit of a growl at the memory.  
  
"We're playing Pitch Black again tomorrow." The werewolf reminded his friend. "Holiday treat."  
  
"Noooooo! I'm calling in sick tomorrow." Sirius said with mirth.  
  
"Then I'll teach Harry the spell, and he can turn you into a hanky sack whenever he gets annoyed with you." Lupin threatened.  
  
"I'll be there...just what he needs arsenal if he ever gets mad at me...Just don't you dare teach him that spell," Sirius said sighing in defeat. But he did pick up a pillow and threw it at Lupin. "Hope you like howling" Sirius added under his breath.  
  
Lupin glared at Sirius when it hit him in the shoulder, "Don't start, you still need a present for Harry, and if you and your godson do that again you'll both find yourselves in the holiday spirit . . . as tree ornaments."  
  
Sirius glared at Remus. "You're no fun, you do know that don't you?" he said pouting  
  
Lupin smirked, "I'm honored, now back to Harry. We've--you've sorry-- settled on getting him something to do with Quidditch, correct?"  
  
"Yes but what? Moony heeeeeellllllllp!" Sirius pleaded with his friend  
  
"Well, I would have recommended that new book . . ."  
  
"No Moony, Hermione gets him those all the time." Sirius said shooting down the idea.  
  
"She didn't, I checked, and do you even know what it's about?" Lupin said with a Marauder smile.  
  
"Okay, oh wonderful wolf I'll bite what is it about?" Sirius asked totally defeated, at the idea of getting his godson yet another book.  
  
"It's call 105 Ways to Perfect Your Skills as a Seeker."  
  
"Hundred and five, at least it's original." Sirius said with some sorrow edging his voice.  
  
"Moony, I don't know. Do you think he'd like it?" he added with some defeat noticeable.  
  
"With helpful diagrams, conversations with world-class Seekers, and information applying to the U.K. Jr. Quidditch team," Remus added, ignoring his friend's last question.  
  
"Okay that doesn't sound too bad, but Moony I swear if he leaves me to go to the Jr. Quidditch team I'm blaming you." Sirius added slightly amused now at the thought of what a good book his friend suggested.  
  
"You can blame me." Remus smirked. "But giving him two of the same book is really a bit senseless."  
  
"Two? You already got it for him?" Sirius asked surprised.  
  
"Uh huh." Remus's smirk broadened.  
  
"Moony, why did you suggest it to me then?" Sirius asked whining at his friend.  
  
"To see the look on your face." Lupin said over his friend's loud sigh. "If it is any consolation, Harry's going through the same hell as to what to get you."  
  
"Really? But Harry doesn't have to get me anything. After what the Dursleys' did, I want to spoil him rotten." Sirius said truthfully, looking astonished that Harry wanted to give him anything.  
  
"Cut from the exact same cloth," chuckled Lupin.  
  
"What do you mean by that?" Sirius asked curiosity peaked.  
  
Lupin pointed his wand at his throat and muttered something, before saying in a voice exactly like Harry's, "But he's my parent, Remus! I really want to get him something special, I mean he gave me the Firebolt and all, and he's like . . . well . . . my dad in a way, you know?"  
  
"Harry said that?" Sirius asked surpirsed."Why didn't he tell me?"  
  
"Sirius, he'll never say that directly to you." Lupin said still in Harry's voice. "He thinks you'll get mad at him for saying something like that, he knows you're not his father but that doesn't stop him from wanting you to be his dad in the grand scheme of things."  
  
"But I am adopting him. Besides I know that Harry has a father. I am going to make sure Harry knows about both of his parents. Moony how can I tell him I won't be angry with him. I am not good at this parenting thing. HELP ME!!" Sirius pleaded desperately to his friend.  
  
"By the way Moony, if you ever tell Harry I was this desperate, you'll be howling for a month" He added with a grin.  
  
"You seem to be getting along quite well from what I've seen, the boy has you on a pedestal by now, and Harry knows without you telling him. Didn't you notice when we were in that forest last summer how every time something alarming happened he would be next to you in a moment?" Lupin said meaningfully. "I think we should stay with the "Seeker" theme for a present, by the way."  
  
"Hmm, has anyone ever given him a practice snitch?" Sirius asked since his memory tended to be like a sieve at times, though he'd never admit it.  
  
Lupin's eyes grew very large, "No, not that I know of."  
  
"Moony, try to grab Ron tomorrow and make sure. If the answer is no, then I'd say bingo." Sirius said with now a huge grin on his face.  
  
"Besides, he doesn't know about the house now does he, Moony?" Sirius added with a sly, secretive grin.  
  
"Remember now what's in the back of the old mansion now..." Sirius said since his friend remained silent.  
  
"You're going back there when school's out, huh?" Lupin said, sounding mildly surprised.  
  
"Why not? It's been in my family for a long time and it just happens to have the Quidditch pitch that we used during the times we were home." Sirius said winking. "Where better to put the book and practice snitch to use? Besides he won't get clobbered by any Bludgers while only practicing." he added as a side comment  
  
Lupin nodded sagely, before asking "Do you want me to get Ron?"  
  
"You're right better to do it tonight huh? That way Harry won't be suspicious to anything." Sirius said nodding.  
  
"I'll call him." Lupin said, throwing some powder into the fire after kicking anyway some of Sirius's assorted junk. "Ron, could you come here for a moment?" he called into the flames.  
  
"Yes Harry? Professor Lupin?!" Ron questioned as he came into the room.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Why do you have Harry's voice?" Ron asked, his eyebrows raised in question.  
  
Remus raised an eyebrow before realizing that he had not taken the spell off. "Sorry," he said, Harry's voice squeaking in that manner it had whenever the boy was horroribly embarrassed. He pointed his wand at his throat, muttering again before saying in his normal voice, "Better?"  
  
"Much. You are lucky that Harry was in the loo, I thought it was a practical joke. He's done a lot more of those lately thanks to some one. Anyway, what is it you wanted?" Ron had said all of this in one breath. His ears turned red with embarrassment at the fact he blurted that out like some school girl.  
  
Remus smiled, winking at Ron. "The someone responsible for Harry's new found love of practical jokes is in need of your help."  
  
"Aw, Harry's not that bad . . . is he?" Sirius asked with hope. "We'll make him a marauder yet." He added grinning after getting an affirmative Ron.  
  
"What do you need help with? Please make it quick if you wanted to keep it a secret. I'm sure Harry's going to be back real soon," Ron said with his most sarcastic voice.  
  
"Ummm...This could be embarrassing..."Sirius started.  
  
"Embarrassing? How?" asked Ron, now quite interested.  
  
"Do you know if Harry has a...has a.... has a...." Sirius kept blundering on the word.  
  
"DoyouknowifHarryhasapracitcesnitch?" he said all at once.  
  
"Huh?" Ron asked utterly confused but had a huge smile on his face thinking, Yep, Lupin is right they are made of the same stuff, especially when embarrassed.  
  
"Er, Professor, could you repeat that?"  
  
"What Professor Black is trying to say Ron is does Harry have a practice snitch?" Lupin asked plainly obviously enjoying the scene that was playing out.  
  
"Oh, you still haven't gotten him a Christmas present? It's December twenty- second, Sirius!" Ron said playing along.  
  
"Oh of course I have Ron that's why we've called you here. Of course I haven't yet." Sirius said flustered.  
  
Ron smirked, "Geez, this is really eating away at you, huh?"  
  
"Ron can you just be a good Gryffindor and answer the question? Please!" Sirius said in a pleading voice.  
  
"Okay, but will my response affect my Creatures grade?"  
  
"No. It won't" Lupin assured before Sirius could open his mouth.  
  
Ron nodded before saying "Nope, and I saw him staring at a picture of one in Which Broomstick if that helps any."  
  
"Yes! Ron, thank you so much...now get going and please keep it a secret. If not someone will find a bad prank in their trunk." Sirius said with a smirk on his face.  
  
Ron grinned, "Don't worry; I'll keep my mouth shut. Do you want a copy of the magazine too?"  
  
"Yes please. Ron if not too much trouble could you circle the one that he's been looking for?" Sirius asked hopefully.  
  
"Sure, be right back. Can I use the fireplace?"  
  
"Go ahead...Oh and Ron what about Harry?" Sirius asked a nervous edge to his voice. "If he's back I mean?"  
  
"I'll handle him," the red-head promised.  
  
"Oh and Ron...Thanks" Sirius said as the boy headed towards the fire  
  
"No problem."  
  
A minute later the teenage reappeared, the newest issue of a Which Broomstick in hand.  
  
"Ron thank you so much. I'll reimburse you for the Which Broomstick all right?" Sirius said taking the book from Ron.  
  
"Don't mention it." Said Ron with a grin. "It's in the What Does it Take? column; under the part about making it as a pro Seeker."  
  
"Thanks again Ron." Sirius said as he started flipping through the book.  
  
"What?" Sirius asked looking at Remus after Ron had gone.  
  
"Nothing, nothing, not a thing," Remus said hastily.  
  
"Uh-huh and I'm a hinkypunk...Now what is going on?" Sirius asked now highly curious. "Or I can just bug you until you tell me" he added with a glint in his eye.  
  
Remus rolled his eyes, "I've never seen such an . . . unattractive hinkypunk."  
  
"Unattractive? Humph I'll have you know that I was one of the contestants for Witches Weekly's best smile of 1979, my dear wolf." Sirius said flashing his smile.  
  
"Note the date, 1979," Remus said smirking. "Find the article yet?"  
  
"Well let's see what would have happened if I hadn't visited Azkaban." Sirius said while looking at the pages " . . . ah, here it is." he added with triumph.  
  
Sirius read the ad aloud, "The Bullet! This is a one of a kind practice snitch. It has been pre- spelled to do hundreds of different hide and seek techniques. Never the same twice! The most realistic practice snitch ever manufactured. So try it now don't delay, limited supply only. The perfect Christmas gift for the Seeker in your family."  
  
"Sounds good doesn't it?" Remus said with a smile.  
  
"Yeah!" Sirius said a little half-heartedly.  
  
"What's wrong Padfoot? You needed a gift, you have one. Why sound so glum?" Remus asked sitting down next to his friend.  
  
"Finding it."  
  
"What do you mean finding it? So, sometimes it takes time, especially when it's for those you love." Remus said knowingly." Remember how much trouble James went through to find Lily's gift?" He added.  
  
Sirius snorted, before grinning "I although won't have to go that far."  
  
"You complain like that was the case though." Remus added grinning broadly.  
  
Sirius smacked his friend upside the head before grabbing his cloak, and heading for the door, "All I have to do it call in a favor." 


	9. A White--Er I Mean--Black Christmas

Sequel to Harry Potter and the Emerald Eye. (I suggest you read that first, but you don't have to, it's just a good idea.) Harry's in for quite a year when he starts seeing things that no one else can, is it a dream? Or is he really going crazy? Questions start arising like what did Voldemort do to his victim after he killed them? This has it all; mystery, insanity, a lot of Sirius and Remus, and everyone calls Harry a lunatic at least once! ;)  
  
Thank you to all my reviewers! You guys rock!  
  
This chapter is fluff galore, and all I have to say is enjoy it while you can, but the story takes a dark turn very soon. You have been warned.  
  
Major thanks to my betas: Essence of Magic, Immia, sweets, and Wolf of Solitude who beta-ed this chapter also. They have fantastic, dealing with all my off-topic-ness, and warp sense of humor and everything! Applaud them everybody! Right now! Thanks girls!  
  
Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to sweets who helped immensely with this chapter. She co-wrote it with me, and if it wasn't for her I would still be writing it. I highly recommend her fics to everybody. If you like this then I sure you will like her story Unlikely Situations. It has a fantastic plot and a must for any Harry/Sirius, godfather/godson lover. Thanks sweets!  
  
Disclaimer - This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I own the plot and a few original things. Elven itself all belongs to the master himself J. R. R. Tolkien.  
  
Chapter 9: A White—er, I Mean—Black Christmas  
  
"So what are you and Professor Black doing for Christmas?" Longo asked as he and Harry walked home from the last Quidditch practice before the holidays, their shoes crunching in the newly fallen snow.  
  
"Staying here, all the professors have too, school ordinance 22G," Harry said with a grin.  
  
Longo's mouth made a small "o" shape.  
  
"What are you doing?" Harry said, changing the subject.  
  
"Going home, spending it with my Dad, I guess," Longo shrugged. "The Weasleys are going home right?"  
  
"Yeah, how'd you know?"  
  
"Ginny," said the younger boy simply.  
  
Harry nodded, "Hermione's going home too, and her parents want her home with the threat of Vol— You-Know-Who."  
  
"I'm not afraid of Voldemort's true name," said Longo quickly. "It's stupid not to say it, really."  
  
Harry nodded in agreement as they made their way through the castle doors.  
  
"See ya, I guess," muttered Longo.  
  
"Yeah, by the way if I don't see you after tomorrow Merry Christmas," said Harry as Longo headed off in the direction of the library.  
  
"Merry Christmas to you too."  
  
~~  
  
The sun dawned bright on Christmas morning, making the newly fallen snow glisten like a thousand diamonds. All the professors were still snug in their beds with one exception.  
  
"Sirius? Come on Sirius, wake up."  
  
Sirius Black's subconscious was vaguely aware of somebody shaking him. Didn't this person know that he had been up late last night? Or how much his back still hurt from a rousing game of Pitch Black? And if he or she didn't, they ought to. He'd yell at them later.  
  
"Siri?" the voice whispered, shaking him again.  
  
Sirius turned toward the voice, for some reason he couldn't remember at that moment he loved that voice. And under normal circumstances he would awake in a second to see its owner's face, but then again a man does need his sleep.  
  
He felt something rub up against his cheek, brushing up against the short stubble that had grown over night. He wrapped an arm around whomever it was waist, drawing the person close.  
  
The person, perhaps a boy or a teenager, his mind was still too fogged with sleep to distinguish one from the other, cuddled closer.  
  
"Sirius, you have to get up," the boy said, trying hard not to sound like he was whining. "And shave, your cheek is really scratchy."  
  
Sirius laughed, finally realizing who it was, hugging his godson all the more. "What's with the wake up call?" he said his voice thick with sleep.  
  
"I wanted you to get up," Harry said simply. "It _is_ Christmas and I thought that maybe, if you wanted to, I mean you don't _have_ to, it's just . . ."  
  
"Just what?" his godfather asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes with one hand.  
  
"I wanted to be with you," said Harry meekly, his eyes becoming especially large and innocent-looking.  
  
Sirius smiled softly before laying his chin on top of Harry's head in a parental sort of way. "I'll be up in ten minutes."  
  
"Ten minutes real time or ten minutes Sirius time?"  
  
"Sirius time."  
  
"Siiiriiiuuusss!" moaned Harry, tugging at Sirius's black t-shirt.  
  
A slow, sly grin crossed Sirius's face then lunged at his godson, tickling him until he screamed for mercy.  
  
"Ger off SNUFFLES!" shouted Harry, trying to push his larger and obviously stronger godfather off of him.  
  
"Why should I?"  
  
"Because I said so, and I'm the mighty Boy Who Lived!"  
  
"And I am the mighty Dog of Doom!"  
  
"So? What do you do? Guard Mount Doom or something?" Harry smirked.  
  
Sirius shook his head dismissively before rolling off of Harry. He crawled back under the covers with every intent of going back to sleep. There was only one little problem, Harry. Who was flicking the back of his neck, repeatedly.  
  
He growled loudly, batting away Harry's hand.  
  
"Wake up!" was shouted in his ear after the hand finally stopped.  
  
"No, go to beddy-by, Harrykins."  
  
"No, Harrykins wants his godfather to get up."  
  
Sirius couldn't help but grin, there was still some child-ness left in a boy who had to grow up much too fast.  
  
Hauling himself up onto one elbow Sirius asked playfully, "Then why do you have to wait for me to open presents?"  
  
Harry frowned, "I, er, well if you really want to sleep, I can go . . ."  
  
Sirius smacked him playfully, "Of course not."  
  
"You mean you're getting up?" Harry's eyes lit up, rubbing where Sirius had smacked him. "Seriously?"  
  
"No, I'm kidding," Sirius said all thoughts of sleep forgotten with a roll of his eyes.  
  
Grinning his head off, Harry hopped out of the bed, allowing Sirius to get up. "You know you don't have to Sirius, honestly you don't. I don't want to be a bother."  
  
Ruffling his hair Sirius chided, "You? A bother? Never."  
  
Harry ruffled Sirius's bed head hair in return.  
  
"Is Remus up," asked Sirius.  
  
"Nope, just us," Harry said, rummaging in the wardrobe drawers, presumably looking through Sirius's clothes.  
  
"What are you looking for?"  
  
"Clothes, aha! Something that isn't black!" Harry said, yanking out a baggy red t-shirt with the Gryffindor lion logo on the front. He tossed it to Sirius.  
  
"I haven't worn this for decades though."  
  
"You're only a hundred right?" Harry joked, pulling out a pair of black jeans.  
  
"One hundred and four; get it right!" He replied with as much fake scorn as possible.  
  
"Really, you don't look a day over one hundred and three."  
  
"Thank you, dearie. You're ever so kind."  
  
Harry rolled his eyes.  
  
"All right, all right, get out while I get changed," Sirius said, jerking his thumb towards the door.  
  
"You won't go back to sleep will you?"  
  
"Now would I do a thing like that?"  
  
"Yes!" shouted Harry while Sirius pushed him out of the room.  
  
Several minutes later Sirius emerged wearing the shirt and jeans Harry had picked out, leaving his hair down. Although his manner was slightly sluggish, his eyes were bright and alert.  
  
Harry looked him up and down; it was amazing to see Sirius wearing something that wasn't black, white, or navy.  
  
Harry mumbled the password ("Dodecahedron") when they arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady, who had added a sprig of holly to her dress, and she swung forward.  
  
"Nice Holly," Sirius commented on his way inside.  
  
"Always a flirt!" twittered the Fat Lady before the portrait swung closed.  
  
Harry muttered, "Flirting with the Fat Lady Sirius?"  
  
"Old habits die hard," Sirius said wistfully. A far off look took over his eyes.  
  
Harry looked at him peculiarly, but said nothing.  
  
"Whoa, the house elves must like you!" Sirius gasped in awe of the common room's Christmas decorations.  
  
"It's never been this decorated before," Harry said while gaping.  
  
Sirius, who was examining some of the presents said, "Some of these have my name, why?"  
  
Harry raised an eyebrow, "What'd you expect? Turnips?"  
  
"Well no but..."  
  
"Yes?" Harry asked, curiously.  
  
"I don't know; it's just still surprising."  
  
"How come?"  
  
Sirius just shrugged still staring at the many gifts.  
  
"Weird godfather," Harry commented  
  
"Thank you."  
  
But his words were lost upon Harry who was sitting on the floor shaking his first present.  
  
Sirius sat down next to him, watching curiously.  
  
No sound came from inside.  
  
"You know," Sirius pointed out, "Most people put silencing charms on their gifts for exactly that purpose."  
  
Harry looked at him, surprised.  
  
"What? You never heard of those?"  
  
"Yes, but I didn't know that you could do that to gifts."  
  
"You can do charms on almost anything, Harry."  
  
Harry waited patiently.  
  
Sirius waved briefly, telling him to go on with the unwrapping. He knew full well that Harry would wait until he was finished speaking. For some reason Harry found anything and everything he said fascinating.  
  
Harry casually nudged a present toward Sirius, as if to say we're doing this together whether you like it or not.  
  
Sirius started to protest, but at the look of determination in Harry's eyes his complaints promptly ceased.  
  
They spent the next twenty minutes opening presents and joking like they had done this before. What was most surprising was when Sirius received a Weasley sweater, black of course.  
  
"How did Mrs. Weasley know I liked the color black," Sirius asked looking at his sweater.  
  
"Sirius," Harry said," Everybody knows you love black, even the Weasleys."  
  
Sirius shrugged, "Can I help that the fact I look amazingly sexy in it?"  
  
"Sure you do. You just think that."  
  
Sirius shook his head, muttering, "I don't get any respect."  
  
"I could have told you that!"  
  
"_Especially_ not from my _godson_."  
  
"Am I that bad?" Harry asked with an innocent look upon his face.  
  
Sirius smiled softly, "Nah, anyway here." He handed Harry one of the last presents under the tree. It was quite small, and the wrapping paper was a simple shiny red.  
  
As soon as Harry took it from Sirius, his godfather became very interested in his sweater. Slowly, Harry took off the wrapping paper, as soon as the wrapping fell away his breath caught in his chest.  
  
He held in hands a small gold trimmed glass box that sparkled in the weak winter sunlight. Within the box was a bright, glittering, golden ball with pearly white wings, each feather was trimmed with silver. Scrawled across the top of the box in gold lettering was the Snitch's name: The Bullet.  
  
"S-Sirius h-how? B-but i-it m-must h-have c-cost, o-oh . . ."  
  
Sirius shrugged. "Christmas is only once a year right? So, I guess . . . whoa! Harry!" He laughed as Harry gave him a smothering hug, shouting, "Thank you!"  
  
"Would I be correct in saying you like it?" Sirius asked, playfully.  
  
"No."  
  
Sirius's mouth almost dropped.  
  
"I LOVE IT!" Harry's smile broadened as Sirius's expression went from astonished to practically beaming.  
  
"I thought you would," he said modestly, simply enjoying of the feeling the happiness that was radiating from Harry.  
  
"Do you think we could . . . you know . . . try it out? Later?" suggested Harry, batting his doe-like eyes.  
  
"Of course, no need for the Bambi eyes Har'."  
  
Harry nodded, and scrambled off his godfather.  
  
Now there was only one present left under the tree, Harry pushed it toward Sirius.  
  
Sirius raised his eyebrows at Harry, the boy seemed almost nervous. He picked up the gift, giving Harry a bright smile.  
  
Slowly, Sirius unwrapped the square package, and opened the box. Once he had pulled back the tissue paper, his eyes grew to the size of Quaffles.  
  
"Do you like it Sirius?" Harry asked a bit uncertainly.  
  
Sirius, too numb to speak, nodded fervently. "H-how d-did you know?" he asked a second later finally finding his voice.  
  
"Ummm...Let's say I got a little help from a friend." Harry said a bit uncomfortably. "Ah, read the first page," he added as Sirius took the first book out of the book.  
  
Sirius's eyes glanced over the first page as his eyes lit up. "Harry, you shouldn't have...I mean wow!" Sirius said at a loss for words.  
  
"Yeah, I know! I guess first editions are hard to come by, huh?"  
  
"First editions, Jesus, Harry you didn't have to do this. It's my job to spoil you not the other way around." Sirius said, holding the book as if it was his own newborn child.  
  
"I wish it was more."  
  
Sirius shot him a look, "Harry, do you know how hard first editions are to find?"  
  
"Ummm...it wasn't really that hard to find." Harry said trying to get off the subject.  
  
Sirius laughed, "If you consider wasn't really as near impossible."  
  
"Sirius... it really was easy when you know somebody like Hermione," Harry said before clamping a hand over his mouth.  
  
Sirius laughed again, "So, you have connections? Wish I had them."  
  
"Really? But you didn't have to get me anything. I mean..."Harry trailed off and turned his head so Sirius wouldn't see.  
  
He felt arm go around his shoulder.  
  
"Sirius...Look at me now. I just went and ruined the first happy Christmas we've both had in a long time." Harry said trying to wipe his eyes.  
  
Sirius smiled softly, gently stroking Harry's cheek. "You haven't ruined anything, Emeralds."  
  
"Emeralds?" Harry said blankly.  
  
"Just a nickname I had for you Harry. Or I could always call you shorty." Sirius said with a smile.  
  
Harry looked up at his godfather, "A nickname? Really?"  
  
"Why not? It's high time you had one." Sirius said looking at his godson. "Just a special one between us; and you can include Moony if you like," he added.  
  
Harry grinned, "I remembered hearing it once, when I was younger."  
  
Sirius's smile turned a little sad. "I always called you it."  
  
"I like it, Siri," Harry whispered.  
  
"Good. Just do me one favor?" Sirius asked as Harry looked up at him with questioning eyes. "Now that I'm free please never, ever call me Snuffles again okay? Makes me sound like an elephant with a cold," he added smiling down at his godson as he took Harry back into the hug  
  
Harry nodded, "I'll just call you Snufflelubogous."  
  
"A what?" Sirius asked puzzled.  
  
"Never saw Sesame Street?" Harry asked.  
  
Sirius's face remained blank.  
  
"Never mind, then."  
  
"Wait a minute, it that the one with the green guy in the trash can?" Sirius said, as if remembering something from very long ago.  
  
"Yes Sirius. That's the one and the 6 foot yellow bird." Harry said nodding his head.  
  
"Oh, sometimes I saw it when I was babysitting you, kiddo."  
  
"It must have driven you crazy. I mean Dudley watched it till he was 10. "Harry said surprised. "Wait mum and dad had a T.V.? I thought wizarding households didn't have one. The Weasleys don't," he added  
  
"Let's just say there were some things Lily didn't want to forget from the Muggle world," Sirius smirked. "And it knocked you out, by the way."  
  
"Knocked me out huh?" Harry said a bit surprised  
  
"Put you to sleep, usually on my chest."  
  
"Really? You must have been very comfortable." Harry said with a grin.  
  
"Your favorite pillow!"  
  
"Did you baby-sit me a lot?" he asked as an afterthought.  
  
Sirius nodded, slightly, wondering if he shouldn't have brought up the subject.  
  
"What did all of you do?" Harry asked playing with one of the discarded present ribbons. "For a living I mean."  
  
Sirius remained silent, laying his head a top of Harry's.  
  
"I'm sorry Sirius; I shouldn't have brought it up." Harry said putting his arms around his godfather.  
  
"Hmm?" Sirius asked, acting as if he had gotten a sudden case of amnesia.  
  
"Sirius," Harry said softly.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
Harry moved his hands to goose Sirius in the ribs playfully.  
  
"Hey! What was that for?" Sirius demanded.  
  
"It was getting to tense in here," Harry said innocently starting to back away from his godfather.  
  
"Oh, now you're gonna get it, Harry!" Sirius grinned and lunged at Harry.  
  
"Siri...."Harry never got to finish his sentence as his godfather launched a tickle attack on him.  
  
Within a few seconds both of them were laughing their heads off.  
  
"Stop . . . please...Sirius I have to go" Harry said panting for breath. But he was still laughing to hard to get up.  
  
Sirius helped him to his feet. "Feel like breaking in that new Snitch when you get back?"  
  
"Definitely," Harry said taking off like the wind upstairs to the boys' dorm.  
  
A few minutes he returned with the Firebolt over his shoulder, fantastically polished as usual.  
  
"Do you have a broom to fly on?" Harry asked coming down.  
  
"Of course," Sirius held out a hand and a broom came zooming into the room.  
  
"Great! Race ya to the pitch, "Harry said darting out of the room with his Firebolt and practice snitch in hand.  
  
"Hey, come back here you!" Sirius shout taking off after him.  
  
"Catch me if you can," Harry yelled back to his godfather as he was half way down the hall.  
  
By the time Sirius had caught up to him they were already at the pitch.  
  
"Beat you!" Harry said triumphantly while breathing hard.  
  
Sirius shrugged, before asking, "Are you all right?"  
  
"Yeah...just not used to running all the way here, especially in the dead of winter," Harry said finally getting his breath back.  
  
This didn't stop Sirius from feeling his forehead.  
  
"_Sirius_, I'm fine really, "Harry protested but knew it was a lost cause. So he didn't bother, he simply mounted his broom and took off before Sirius could fuss anymore.  
  
"Harry, get back here!" Sirius said. Reluctantly he mounted his broom if the boy was ill he'd know soon enough.  
  
When he came level with Harry, he fixed his godson with a hard stare.  
  
"Did that prove to you that I was okay?" Harry said as he lifted the box with the practice snitch out of his pocket.  
  
Nodding, Sirius suddenly became very interesting in a spot on his broom.  
  
"Sirius, are you ready? By the way nice pink color on your face there," Harry said as he got ready to release the snitch.  
  
Sirius's smile became competitive, "Just release it runt."  
  
"I resent that, "Harry said as he released the golden snitch. It fluttered a moment around both their heads and disappeared.  
  
Before Sirius had realized it, Harry had zoomed half way down the field, leaving him in the dust.  
  
~*~  
  
  
  
Several hours later Harry and Sirius re-entered the castle, sweaty and tired.  
  
"That was great Sirius! This is one of the best present I ever got," Harry said, gesturing to the snitch. "The other two being the Firebolt and the most important one was your freedom," Harry said this all in a rush. He was glad it was cold because he had just blushed after blurting it out.  
  
"You really love that broom huh?" Sirius said, brushing some snow from his hair.  
  
"Yeah, but I like you better."  
  
Sirius ruffled Harry's wind blown hair. "It's almost dinner time you know."  
  
"Yeah, I just want to get a shower and change," Harry said. "See you in a bit at the hall?" he asked as he headed towards the stairwell.  
  
"Sure!" Sirius called to him before muttering something in Elven.  
  
This made Harry stop. "Er, Sirius?"  
  
"Yes Harry?" Sirius asked looking at his godson.  
  
"Who is the Runes professor anyway?"  
  
"Why do you ask?" Sirius asked obviously wondering why his godson would think of now to ask that question.  
  
"Just curious."  
  
"Oh," Sirius said before shuddering. "Trust me Harry you don't want to- -"  
  
"Siiiriiiuuusss? Is that your charming voice I hear?" a high-pitch voice rang through the corridor.  
  
"Oh shit," mumbled Sirius under his breath before saying. "Yes, Clarabell, it's me!"  
  
"Clarabell?" Harry sniggered. "Is this a bad joke?" he added trying to control his laughter.  
  
"Shh," Sirius snapped as the most outlandish person Harry had ever seen came into view.  
  
She was very tall. Almost as tall as Sirius, perhaps a hair or two shorter. She was as thin as a broomstick, and with her long, loosely jointed limb and long hooked nose resembled a crane. She wore robes of bright purple with shocking pink trim. Around her neck was a long, fluffy, crimson boa with matched her hair perfectly. On her feet, instead of the common half-heel worn by most female professors, were a pair of neon orange, six inch stiletto heels. To top it off she wore a pair of gold glasses with rhinestones in the shape of hieroglyphics.  
  
"What is that?" Harry whispered to his godfather shocked by what he saw  
  
Sirius elbowed him hard in the ribs, while saying, "Merry Christmas Clarabell."  
  
"And a merry, happy, wonderful, joyful Christmas to you as well," piped Clarabell before her cat like yellow eyes landed on Harry. "And who do we have here?"  
  
At that moment Harry became like a small child trying to hide from the monster, and ducked behind his godfather.  
  
Sirius smiled forcefully, but he couldn't hide the note of pride in his voice, "This is my godson, Harry." He tugged Harry in front of him. "Harry, this is Professor Clarabell Mot the Runes professor."  
  
"Nicetomeetyou," Harry said as quickly as possible for he was afraid he'd bust out laughing.  
  
"Well Sirius, isn't he a charming, handsome, adorable, and . . ."  
  
"Sirius...I'll see you later. I just remembered something I had to do," Harry said and was off in a flash.  
  
"You know Clarabell he's absolutely right, we're both sweaty and very tired. So I'm going to take a shower and see you later," Sirius said backing up slowly. "So, adios, au revoir, wiedersehen, ta-ta-ta, so long, farewell, and bye-bye!" With that he shot up the staircase and out of sight.  
  
At the top of the staircase Sirius saw his godson sitting on the floor there. His head was on his knees. "Harry? Are you all right?" he asked coming to a stop in front of his godson.  
  
Harry shook his head.  
  
"What's the matter?" Sirius asked suddenly concerned.  
  
"That was such a shocking thing to see I think my heart stopped." Harry said with a grin.  
  
"Get up you runt," Sirius said, holding his hand out to help Harry up.  
  
Harry just stared at Sirius.  
  
"Runt? I am not a runt I'm just vertically challenged." Harry said matter of factly, taking the pre-offered hand.  
  
Sirius pulled him up and slung a sweaty arm around an equally sweaty shoulder. "And now you know why I said don't ask."  
  
"No kidding." Harry answered. Then he thought of something. "So Sirius, are there wedding bells in your future?" he asked mockingly  
  
"Don't you even joke about that Harry James Potter."  
  
"What?" Harry asked, with mock innocents.  
  
"I think you're so tired that it's starting to effect your brain, or maybe it's the sweat." Sirius sniffed loudly.  
  
"Hey, you don't smell like a garden of roses either. But I am tired," Harry admitted. "Maybe tired enough to skip dinner."  
  
"A shower will wake you up, use mine, it's better than the dorm ones," Sirius said, leading them toward what Harry had dubbed the "teacher district".  
  
"Er, Sirius, I don't have anything to change into." Harry said.  
  
"I'll get some of your stuff while you're showering."  
  
"Thanks Snuffles."  
  
"No problem," Sirius said as the wolf rose letting them in. "Go ahead, I'll go get your stuff. Wash up."  
  
"Okay!" He entered the room to see Lupin sitting in one of the armchairs. "Hi Professor Lupin," Harry said, before going into the bathroom and closing the door.  
  
"Hi Harry," Remus said as he heard the water start running.  
  
When Harry left the shower, a towel wrapped firmly around his waist, and found a stack of clothes on the hamper.  
  
"So Harry, have a fun time with Sirius today?" Remus asked looking at him.  
  
"What?" Harry asked, coming out of the bathroom.  
  
"It seems you've met Sirius's stalker."  
  
"Don't you dare," Sirius's voice boomed from another room.  
  
"Oh what's wrong Padfoot? Afraid she's set her eyes on you?" Remus said with a smile.  
  
Sirius stomped into the room, his hair dripping wet. "She has, she bugs me all conference period."  
  
"Nice wet look Sirius," Harry said with a smile.  
  
Sirius ignored him, turning to Remus, "If you tell him anything Moony I'll strangle you."  
  
"Relax Padfoot. I haven't said anything," Remus said with a marauder smile. "Yet."  
  
Sirius glared at his friend, "Let's keep it that way."  
  
"If you don't whine about being Pitch Black again I'll keep my lips sealed." Remus bargained  
  
"That's impossible," Sirius groaned.  
  
"Exactly, if Harry doesn't find out from us. He'll eventually find out from the normal gossip of the school" Remus countered  
  
"Harry, let's go before Remus says something he might regret," Sirius said, grabbing Harry's arm.  
  
"Umm Sirius I need to get dressed first." Harry said blushing.  
  
"Bedroom."  
  
"Yes sir." Harry said running in. "See you later Remus" he said going out of sight.  
  
"Not if I have anything to do with it!" shouted Sirius.  
  
"Cut from the same cloth" Remus said chuckling to himself.  
  
~*~  
  
Several minutes later Harry and Sirius were walking down to the Hall. Harry was pumping his godfather relentlessly for information.  
  
"Oh, come on Siri . . . Please tell me about her...Isn't it better I find out from you then from my friends and peers?"Harry tried.  
  
"Sorry Harry, I have this deaf ear, it comes and goes you know."  
  
"Maybe I should try shouting in the good one then." Harry mused.  
  
"It's happens to both. Never telling when either, old age ya know."  
  
"You're not _that_ old." Harry said  
  
Sirius gave him a small smile, "Yeah I am, thirty-six! Almost as old as Dumbledore."  
  
"Nah!"  
  
Harry said, "You're not allowed to be old yet. You have to keep up with me."  
  
"I know," Sirius smiled, but there was a sad note in his voice.  
  
"Sirius, don't worry. Believe me you'll have kids one day and forget about me, "Harry said hopefully getting his godfather to talk. He knew he might get a yelling at but he'd take his chances  
  
"No Bertie Botts every flavored bean way! I have one already and he's all I want."  
  
"Aw shucks...but really don't you want kids someday?"  
  
"Nope, I've got you," Sirius said, ruffling Harry's hair.  
  
"But I'm damaged goods!"  
  
"You're my damaged goods then, and I like it that way," Sirius said firmly. "Mind you're already giving me grey hair."  
  
"That's what Five Minutes for Men is for," Harry said brightly.  
  
Sirius slapped him lightly upside the head.  
  
"Hey!" Harry cried indignantly. "I have enough brain damage."  
  
"Huh?" Sirius said blankly.  
  
"Oh look, here's the Great Hall," Harry said before Sirius could open his mouth again. But for some reason Sirius's eyes had gotten very large, and then he heard it. The unmistakable clunking sounds that very high heels made when walking on stone. The sound was coming quickly toward them.  
  
Without hesitation, Harry ducked into the Hall, leaving his godfather to fend for himself.  
  
"Er, hi Clarabell fancy meeting you . . . here," Sirius said as the Runes professor approached.  
  
"Hello Sirius, have a dinner companion?" Mot asked.  
  
"Er, well I was going to eat with Harry, but I'm sure we'd love another."  
  
"Well that would be wonderful, peachy keen . . ." she said as she hooked his arm with hers as they walked in.  
  
Harry nearly burst out laughing at the look Sirius had on his face when they entered the Hall. He had never seen somebody looking so horrified and disgusted at the same time.  
  
"Nice to see you again Professor," Harry said trying not to laugh. "Nice bracelet Sirius," Harry added in a whisper to his godfather.  
  
Sirius opened his mouth to say something but Mot cut him off. "Sirius, you have such a charming, polite, sweet godson."  
  
"I know," Sirius said weakly. "Er, so Clarabell how was your day? Peaceful I hope."  
  
"I wish I could say yes," she said sadly. "But it was not. Would you like me to tell you about it?"  
  
"Well--," Harry began but was cut off.  
  
"I was dodging spells, crossing blazing deserts, jumping over bottomless pits, avoiding Death Eaters, solving puzzling puzzles, running horribly long and meaningless errands, being subjected to terribly Christmas carols, and baking cookies . . . ah, cookies."  
  
"All in one day," gasped Sirius. "You must be joking."  
  
"No, and wouldn't it be stupendous if I wasn't?"  
  
"Sirius, are you sure she's not off her rocker?" Harry hissed in his godfather's ear.  
  
"We haven't gotten the test results back yet," he hissed back as she dug her lime green nails into his arm.  
  
Harry muffled a giggle, and followed Sirius and Mot up to the high table. Even though so few people were there the golden plates and silverware were out and glittering the candlelight. Harry looked down table after claiming a seat next to Sirius. Dumbledore was in the middle of the table wearing evergreen robes with snow white trim. McGonagall was next to him in cranberry robes. At the far end was Snape in usual black with a high collar.  
  
"Hello Harry," a voice said on Harry's left side.  
  
"Hi Professor Lupin," the boy said brightly.  
  
"Hello _Sirius_," Lupin said a little louder than usual.  
  
"Hi Moony," Sirius said, his voice dripping with sugary sweetness  
  
Harry noticed a twinkle in his eye and Sirius was fingering his wand. The old Marauder spirit was back in the wildest one of the four.  
  
"Could you pass the roast beast Sirius," Lupin said, spooning some beans onto his plate.  
  
"Sure," Sirius passed Lupin the heavy platter of roast beast.  
  
Lupin took it graciously, not noticing the twisted grin on his friend's face.  
  
Harry watched curiously as Lupin doled a few slices of meat onto his plate, and chewed a piece thoughtfully. "This is quite good—"  
  
BANG!  
  
The chair that had only a few seconds ago seated Remus Lupin now seated a very tasty looking roast beast.  
  
"My, what is fine looking piece of meat doing in Remmie's seat?" asked Mot, eying the roast.  
  
"Funny you should say that," smirked Sirius as the roast just about quivered in fear. "You could say Moony liked the roast _so_ much, he wanted to become just like it."  
  
Harry lost it at that point, and started cracking up.  
  
"I don't see what's so funny Harry," Sirius said stiffly. "If I man wants to become a roast then I support that decision."  
  
"You're right Sirius," Harry said gaining control over himself. "I'm so glad I have an un-biased person like you for a godfather."  
  
"You should, amazing the kinds of people who are biased against people who want to grow up to be meat."  
  
"Imagine that."  
  
Mot shrugged, and picked up a steak knife, putting it to the roast.  
  
"No!" Sirius said quickly. No matter had furious he was at Lupin for turning him into a hacky sack he didn't want him to lose a leg or hand or even . . . he shuddered.  
  
"Why?" Mot asked, confused.  
  
"Because, I'm a vegetarian," Harry said quickly, pushing the meat off of his plate.  
  
"Oh! Oh yes!" Mot said quickly, putting the knife down. "Vegetarianism is a great, fantastic, healthy way to live."  
  
"Yes, I'm sure it is," Sirius said tapping the roast beast with his wand. "Just like wanting to grow up to be meat, 'cept I was one for a time."  
  
"Vegetarian or meat?" Harry asked as the roast beast morphed into Lupin.  
  
"Vegetarian, Moony's the fine piece of meat, right Moons?"  
  
"Yes Padfoot," Lupin said, brushing gravy off of his sleeves.  
  
"You have mash potatoes in your hair, Professor," Harry observed.  
  
Lupin brushed the potatoes out of his hair, hurriedly; glaring at Sirius.  
  
The rest of the Christmas dinner past without incident, unless you count when Snape's skin turned green but no one noticed—besides certain people—until it was back to its normal pallid color.  
  
When the candles light had died down and all of their stomachs were nice and full they were all beginning to feel warm and sleepy. Harry watched as Mot snaked her arms around Sirius's.  
  
"Siri, how about a stroll, its lovely out," she purred, or tried to.  
  
Sirius's eyes which had been drooping shot open, "Huh?"  
  
She batted her heavily mascara eyes, making the purring noise again.  
  
"I-I," Sirius faltered.  
  
Harry gulped; he knew that Sirius—despite whatever impression he gave—he would never outright say "no" to a woman unless she was a Death Eater. "Er, Sirius," he said quietly. "I have something to tell you."  
  
Sirius turned to his godson.  
  
"What is it?" he asked.  
  
"Remember when you tried to look at me before we played and I said I was okay?"  
  
"Yes," Sirius said catching on, making his voice fill with concern.  
  
"Well right now I think I'm gonna be sick," Harry said running from the hall.  
  
"What was all that Sirius?" Mot asked, her voice all a twitter.  
  
"You'll have to excuse me but I have to check on Harry. I think we overdid it today on the Quidditch pitch," Sirius said as he got up. "I'll take a rain check on that walk, okay Clarabell?" he finished rising from his chair to follow his godson.  
  
"Why, of course children first," she said with a hint of disappointment.  
  
"See you later," he said leaving the hall.  
  
He hurried to the Gryffindor common room where Harry was bound to be.  
  
Sirius scrambled through the portrait hole to see Harry sitting cross- legged next to the tree, not looking remotely sick.  
  
"About time," Harry said, not looking up from the book he had in his lap.  
  
Sirius frowned, "You try to get rid of Mot."  
  
"I helped," Harry protested. "You'd be on a romantic evening stroll with her right now if it wasn't for me."  
  
"True," Sirius chuckled. "I owe you kid."  
  
"I'm will be reminding you of that periodically."  
  
"I know," Sirius said with an exaggerated sigh before sitting down with his back propped up against the foot of one of the couches. In one swift motion he picked up the box in which the Lord of Rings was in. He took out the Fellowship of the Ring, and began to read.  
  
Harry watched Sirius for a while; he could now see why Lupin had called him a bookworm. He had never seen anyone--besides Hermione that is-- seem so absorbed by a book. He scooted closer to his godfather, almost instinctively. Soon enough he was sitting next to Sirius, following along with him as he read. Once or twice he almost told Sirius not to turn the page but caught himself in time.  
  
Sirius must have noticed because he started reading aloud.  
  
Harry listened happily, allowing his head to rest against Sirius's shoulder and his eyes to close, imagining Frodo's adventures, being lulled to sleep by Sirius's steady, soothing voice. 


	10. In Dreams

A/n: Me again . . . no! No! Do NOT run away, just yet. I'm going try and sound professional for just a few minutes so please bear with me. This chapter was one of the very first ones written for the Book of Ages, and will prove to be very important. Clues abound here; the only problem is finding them. Good luck and enjoy the chapter!  
  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I do not own the lyrics down there either; sadly, they're from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, track 17: The Breaking of the Fellowship, music composed, orchestrated, and conducted by Howard Shore.  
  
~~~~~  
  
But in Dreams,  
  
I still hear your name,  
  
And in dreams  
  
We will meet again.  
  
—In Dreams, The Breaking of the Fellowship, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.  
  
~~~~  
  
That night, Harry fell into a deep slumber, losing all sense of the world around him. All sense of reality gone, he entered his own world of fantasies, and dreams.  
  
Chapter 10: In Dreams  
  
"Wake up, Harry, it's time to wake up," a soft, soothing voice called to Harry, breaking through the strong, protective walls of his endless slumber.  
  
Harry turn over on his side, but for some reason doing it caused a massive pain to shoot through his head. "Ugh," he moaned, bring a hand to his throbbing head. But something was wrong, his voice was . . . squeaky?  
  
A gentle hand began rubbing the spot on Harry's head that seemed to ache the most.  
  
"See what you get for taking on people that are five-years older then you?" the voice said, jokingly. "But it was brave of you."  
  
Harry could only moan, his head felt like it had been slammed into a tree.  
  
"Do you think you can sit up for me?" coaxed the voice.  
  
Obediently, Harry pulled himself into a sitting position, but as he did so a sharp pain rippled through his stomach. "Ow!"  
  
"Easy there, Short Stuff," the voice said, handing him his glasses.  
  
Harry put them on, and couldn't believe what he saw; Sirius. But not the Sirius he knew, this Sirius looked as though he had never been to Azkaban at all. "Sirius?"  
  
"Who'd you expect? Father Christmas?" Sirius grinned playfully.  
  
Harry grinned in returned, and shrugged. But the shrugging caused the pain to slice through his stomach again.  
  
Sirius's grinned faded into a look of seriousness. "Here, try this," he handed Harry a goblet filled with a pale pink liquid.  
  
Harry drank the liquid without protest, and almost immediately he felt it begin to spread through his body soothing whatever had caused the horrible pain in his stomach and head.  
  
"Better?" asked Sirius hopefully.  
  
Harry nodded happily.  
  
"Good, maybe next time you'll listen to me, and ignore Wilkins," Sirius scolded, crossing his arms over his chest. "I still can't believe the little rat preformed an Upchucking Hex on you."  
  
Although, Harry had no idea who Wilkins was, he found himself saying, "He insulted Mum and Dad, I_ had_ to defend their honor, right?"  
  
Sirius gave him a 'you're beginning to sound like me' look before saying, "Well, yes."  
  
"And didn't_ you_ say I should stand up for myself?"  
  
"I suppose."  
  
"Then didn't I do the right thing, Siri?"  
  
Sirius sighed in a defeated way, "Yes, but next time _please_ do not take on any ten  
  
-year-olds, remember you are only five. And to let you know in advance Lily isn't going  
  
to like hearing that you were fighting again, but I'll try to prevent her from finding out."  
  
Harry smiled again and asked, "Why did you pick me up from school, and not Mum  
  
and Dad?"  
  
"They were both on missions, and I number three on the 'if the kid gets sick call this  
  
person" list."  
  
"Oh, then can we eat ice cream?"  
  
Sirius laughed, and handed Harry a bowl. "Way ahead of you, kiddo."  
  
Harry giggled as he started to eat his ice cream, "Mmm, chocolate chip cookie dough,  
  
my favorite."  
  
"You know the rule though, not a word of this to your parents now, or I get my  
  
godfathering duties taken away for awhile," Sirius said, ruffling his godson's hair before  
  
starting on his own bowl of ice cream.  
  
They sat in silence far a few minutes while they ate their ice cream. While they ate,  
  
Harry had the opportunity to look around his room; a large bookcase crammed with  
  
books was in one corner, the walls were covered with Quidditch posters of various  
  
players, and the floor was covered with a mess of junk. His eyes wandered over to his  
  
night table where lay a copy of Quidditch Through the Ages, and a copy of The Hobbit.  
  
"Whatca thinking about?" Sirius asked quietly.  
  
"Nothing."  
  
"Liar," Sirius said, taking the now empty bowl from his godson, "come on, tell."  
  
Harry shook his head.  
  
"Pleeeaaassseee!"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"I'll tickle you if you don't tell."  
  
"You wouldn't!"  
  
"Oh, I would."  
  
Harry started to edge away, if this Sirius was like his Sirius then he wasn't joking  
  
around.  
  
"Come on please? Tell me," Sirius said advancing.  
  
Harry moved until his back was against the wall, but kept his mouth shut.  
  
"Fine, you leave me no choice," Sirius said regretfully, scooping Harry up.  
  
"Sirius . . . please . . . no," Harry whimpered.  
  
"Then tell."  
  
"I was thinking up a scheme to get back at Wilkins," Harry said quickly. Lame,  
  
Potter. Really lame.  
  
"That was lame, Harry. C'mon, the truth."  
  
Harry twisted in Sirius's grip. "I thinking of a way to thank you for taking care of me  
  
today," he mumbled.  
  
Sirius smiled, "I'll take that as an answer."  
  
"Then you'll let me down?" said Harry hopefully.  
  
"Nope, 'cause I don't think that's the only thing you were thinking about."  
  
Harry frowned at this. "It was, I swear! Most people wouldn't come take care of a kid  
  
who got hit with an Upchucking Hex, most wouldn't come near them."  
  
Sirius smiled, and pulled Harry into his embrace, "I'd take care of you even if you were  
  
hit with a dozen Upchucking Hexes."  
  
Harry buried his head into Sirius's chest, a feeling of absolute safety washed over him.  
  
Sirius kissed the top of his godson's head softly. "The hex didn't hit you that badly, you  
  
know," he whispered  
  
"It still felt bad."  
  
Sirius ran a hand through Harry's hair, letting Harry go. "You're all right now though,  
  
right?"  
  
"Kinda sleepy," mumbled Harry, leaning back on the pillows. The moment his head hit  
  
them his eyes became very heavy.  
  
"Just sleep," Sirius mumbled in his ear. "I'll be here when you wake, never fear."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
A few hours later, Harry felt someone shaking him. "Come on, Harry," called a  
  
unfamiliar voice.  
  
Harry turned away from the voice, saying that his stomach still hurt.  
  
"Why does your stomach hurt?" the voice asked, concern filtering through it.  
  
"_Sirius_?"  
  
"Yeah, Prongs?"  
  
James picked his son up, "Harry says his stomach hurts. Why?"  
  
Sirius shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, "Why do you think I know?"  
  
"Because you picked him up from school today," James said, peering sternly at Sirius  
  
over the top of his glasses.  
  
Sirius hung his head, "You have to promise me not to be mad at Harry because it really  
  
wasn't his fault. You see there's this kid Wilkins; he comes from a Death Eater family,  
  
and he's a real . . . well you know, and he insulted you and Lily and Harry stood up to  
  
him and he . . ."  
  
"He what?"  
  
"He hit Harry with an Upchucking Hex," Sirius mumbled as he watched James's face  
  
darken. "So the school called you guys, but since you were both on missions they called  
  
me so I picked him up, brought him home, and took care of him."  
  
"Dinner's ready . . . James, what's wrong with Harry?" Lily Potter asked coming into  
  
her son's room.  
  
"After-effects of an Upchucking Hex," James said as he handed his son to  
  
Lily.  
  
"Sirius?" she said sternly, turning to her son's godfather  
  
Sirius sighed, and related the entire story to her.  
  
Her eyes darkened as she listened, before turning to Harry, and brushed away some  
  
stray tendrils of hair before placing him back in bed. While she covered him, she asked,  
  
"What kind of potion did you give him, Sirius?"  
  
"A Standard Stomach Soother with some mashed Mylanta chewy tablet things for  
  
flavor."  
  
Lily snorted, "Um Padfoot, did you know that little old ladies use the Standard for  
  
their upset stomachs?"  
  
"Well no . . ." said Sirius sheepishly.  
  
"And you need an Extreme Stomach Soother for an Upchucking Hex?"  
  
"Well, it was really hurting him when I brought him back here," protested Sirius, a  
  
protective edge to his voice.  
  
"And you couldn't make it?" James guessed.  
  
"Erm . . . I forgot," confessed Sirius.  
  
Lily smiled warmly at him though, "But you did take care of him and for that I deeply  
  
thank you."  
  
"Good job Padfoot," James smirked.  
  
A moan came from the bed causing the three adults to turn their attention to the boy.  
  
Harry's face was twisted in pain as he kicked off the covers. "Sirius!" he cried, holding  
  
his stomach.  
  
In one swift motion, Sirius had the boy in his arms and out of the room. A second later  
  
the bathroom door slammed shut. Several minutes later, the door opened again. Harry's  
  
arms were loosely around Sirius's neck, and his head was resting on Sirius's shoulder.  
  
His face was pale and his eyes were dull.  
  
"Harry?" whispered a soft voice that he had heard once upon a dream. He raised his  
  
head to it, his breath caught in his chest.  
  
Tall, thin, and agile looking, dressed in jeans and a forest green t-shirt with her long  
  
red hair pulled in a ponytail making her brilliant green eyes show more profusely, Lily  
  
Potter smiled at her son. "Feeling better baby?" she asked, her voice was light and  
  
playful, not hard and stubborn like it was in the frantic screams he knew so well.  
  
"Better," he choked out, still half in shock.  
  
"That's good," she said as she took him from his godfather. "Do you think you can eat  
  
a little dinner?"  
  
Harry nodded slowly as his father—tall, lanky, with midnight blue eye hidden behind  
  
thick black glasses, messy jet black hair, and an easy-going manner—smiled  
  
encouragingly.  
  
"Dad?" Harry whispered, reaching out a small hand.  
  
"Yes?" James said walking over to his son, taking Harry's hand in his own large one.  
  
Harry only grinned, relishing in feeling of being able to feel his father's warm hand . . .  
  
he was real.  
  
This was real. It had to be, the Dursleys and everything else was just a horrible  
  
nightmare.  
  
James grinned back, "Do you think you're up for a short Quidditch game after  
  
dinner?"  
  
Harry nodded, not caring what his stomach felt like, he was going to play Quidditch  
  
with his _father_.  
  
Lily favored them with a look. "Only if _you_ feel all right," she told Harry.  
  
"And if he isn't I could always fill in!" Sirius piped up, not wanting to be forgotten  
  
about.  
  
"Okay," agreed James, and the two Marauders started rambling about their game.  
  
"Please don't grow up to be like your father, Harry," Lily whispered. "I can only  
  
handle _one_ James Potter."  
  
"I'll try not to be _exactly_ like Dad," he promised when . . .  
  
The lights went out; darkness surrounded them as a door creaked open.  
  
Immediately, Harry felt his mother's grip on him tighten. His father drew them against  
  
him protectively. Sirius placed a hand on James's shoulder.  
  
"Daddy?" Harry found himself whispering.  
  
"Shh, Harry," James murmured.  
  
"Well isn't _this_ a charming little abode?" an icy, not-quite human voice hissed.  
  
A chill ran up Harry's spine as he felt a hitch rise in both his parents' chests.  
  
"He told!" Harry heard Sirius snarl under his breath.  
  
James shushed his friend before saying, "Nice to see you again, _Tom_."  
  
"You too, my dear James," the voice said.  
  
James looked at his wife, hissing, "Run when I say so; take Harry and get out of here.  
  
I'll be right behind you."  
  
"No," Lily said stubbornly. "I'm a better mat—"  
  
James shook his head firmly and Lily nodded.  
  
Harry looked up at James, digging his fingernails into his father's shirt. "Dad . . ."  
  
"I'll be okay, you just get out of here with Mum," James kissed the top of his son's  
  
head before turning to Sirius and nodding.  
  
"If we knew you were coming," James said, "we would have tidied the place up a bit."  
  
His eyes darting about, his ears perked for any and all sounds.  
  
"I think it's quite fine for what will be occurring here."  
  
"And what would that be?"  
  
"Your execution."  
  
"Go!" James shouted as a ball of blinding white light exploded from his wand.  
  
Lily took off like a shot.  
  
Dodging, twisting, and turning, yanking open doors as the shouts of various curses  
  
echoed behind them.  
  
Harry buried his face in his mother's chest as she ran. He heard Voldemort shout the  
  
killing curse and a door slam, before the floor gave giant lurch like an earthquake was  
  
occurring beneath them.  
  
Lily fell as another tremor caught her off-balance. She fell sideways so neither her nor  
  
her son would be hurt when they hit the tile floor.  
  
Harry watched as plates and cups went crashing to the floor as though mesmerized by  
  
them. Then he watched in horror as another tremor caused the table to give way,  
  
shattering in two, one half landing on his mother's leg.  
  
Lily gritted her teeth in pain, but did not cry out.  
  
Harry crawled over to her, but she pushed him away.  
  
"Run Harry! Run away!" she cried, kicking furiously at the table until it slid off her  
  
now blood soaked leg. Winching in pain, she leapt to feet, scooped Harry up, and  
  
hobbled as fast as she could to the kitchen door—their only escape.  
  
Just as he hand was about to touch the knob it flew open— standing before then  
  
was Lord Voldemort.  
  
Lily jumped back, shielding her son from the black robed man—if he was even a man  
  
any longer—as she reached for her wand.  
  
"Long time, no see Lily," Voldemort said in an almost conversational tone. "It seems  
  
your precious baby boy has grown a bit."  
  
Lily scowled as her fingertips closed around the familiar wooden stick. "Leave my son  
  
_alone_."  
  
"I could have left _you_ alone if you hadn't medaled in my affairs," hissed Voldemort.  
  
"No," Lily snarled. "You shouldn't have medaled in _mine_."  
  
A gigantic ball of flaming orange light shot at Voldemort.  
  
A shriek of pain pierced Harry's ears as his mother ran out of the house as fast as her  
  
legs could carry her. Tremors shook the ground, sending her skidding to one side then  
  
another, but never knocking her off balance.  
  
"Just a little farther," she mumbled to Harry as he clung to her neck. "We'll be at  
  
Molly's, Daddy's probably there already."  
  
Just feet from where the Anti-Apparation field ended, Lily's mangled leg gave way and  
  
she went flying.  
  
Landing with a heavy thud, Harry rolled about two feet away from Lily, right in front  
  
of Voldemort.  
  
"Well, look who we have here," Voldemort said, imitating James's voice.  
  
Harry scuttled away, he was defenseless now and he knew it.  
  
Lily pulled Harry behind her, shielding him with her body.  
  
"Lily, Lily, when will you learn some common sense?" said Voldemort, reaching out to  
  
touch her.  
  
She slapped the hand away, looking defiantly up at the fiend, but was muttering  
  
something under her breath.  
  
"What are you saying, you silly girl?" the tyrant demanded.  
  
Lily ignored him, still muttering.  
  
"Answer me!"  
  
"Nothing," she said still glaring at Voldemort, her eyes flashing dangerously, being  
  
careful to shield her son the whole time.  
  
The Dark Lord laughed coldly, "Still protecting your precious baby boy, Lily? Why  
  
should you? If it wasn't for him you wouldn't be in this predicament right now."  
  
A low growl rose in the back of Lily's throat as Voldemort pulled something out of his  
  
robes: a golden ring. James's wedding ring.  
  
"And neither would have your husband."  
  
Lily's fists clinched as she continued to glare at Voldemort.  
  
"And for what?" continued Voldemort, twirling the ring between his fingers. "That  
  
worthless pound of flesh. The boy would be better off dead."  
  
Voldemort drew his wand and pointed at her, "Now Lily, let's not let James's death  
  
be in vein, stand aside and let me dispose of that little brat."  
  
"Over my death body, you sick son of a bitch!"  
  
"As you wish Lily," Voldemort said, "Aravada Kavada!"  
  
Harry watched in horror as his mother was engulfed in the fatal green light before  
  
being flung across the yard.  
  
"Now for you," Voldemort's cruel voice echoed in Harry's head as he turned his wand  
  
on him.  
  
The last thing Harry remembered was what felt like somebody holding a white-hot  
  
wire over his forehead and a piercing, animalistic scream ringing in his ears.  
  
  
  
  
  
Harry's eyes fluttered open as a funny smell invaded his nostrils, it smelled like  
  
smoke. He sat up immediately, his stomach gave a horrible lurch and he wretched right  
  
there on the grass.  
  
Getting slowly to his feet, Harry felt something drip down his face. He touched it, his  
  
hand came away crimson. Trembling, his hand went to his forehead, blood was gushing out of a deep lightning bolt shaped cut. As someone once said, "It was déjà vu, all over again."  
  
"Mum! Dad! Sirius!" he yelled as he scrambled through the smoldering rubble. He had forgotten about the blood that was now flowing freely from his forehead as he searched frantically for his family. He tripped over a fallen beam of wood, falling to the ground. He sat up slowly, his face covered in dirt, blood, and tears.  
  
"Harry?! Harry?! I'm here!" a voice called causing Harry to jerk his head up.  
  
Harry's eyes shot open, a tired, careworn face loomed in front of him. Immediately, Harry launched himself at the face, flinging his arm's around the person's neck mumbling, "Sirius!"  
  
"S'okay, I've got you," Sirius whispered as he rubbed Harry's back soothingly. "What happened?"  
  
Before Harry knew what he was saying, he was spilling out the contents of the dream to his godfather. He felt Sirius hug him tighter repeating, "I know, I know. Shh, it's okay now." Harry relaxed his arms.  
  
"Better?" Sirius asked stroking Harry's cheek, it sounded as though this had happened before.  
  
Harry nodded, but stopped in mid-nod when he caught sight of his reflection in the bedroom mirror. He was very small, skinny, and frighteningly pale, he looked like himself at seven-years-old.  
  
Sirius gave him a small smile," Do you think you think you can go beck to sleep now?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"That's my Marauder," Sirius said softly as Harry curled back under the covers and closed his eyes. "Good night Harry."  
  
"G'night Sirius," Harry yawned as he watched Sirius leave, but keeping the door partially open.  
  
Harry had been lying with his eyes closed for only for few minutes when he heard two voices: Sirius's and Remus's.  
  
"Did I wake you Moony?"  
  
"No, I'm usually awake at 3:46 in the morning."  
  
"Oh good, then I didn't wake you."  
  
"Since you're obviously not picking up on the subtlety, what's the matter?"  
  
"What else would be?"  
  
At this Harry rose from his bed, and padded down the hall, following the sound of the two voices.  
  
"Another nightmare?" Remus guessed.  
  
"It's been two years Remes! I'm starting to get worried now."  
  
"What did the doctor say?"  
  
"That quack said that Harry would be having nightmares like this for the rest of his life."  
  
"Isn't that what he said about you also Padfoot? Harry was five when it happened, you were twenty-six. Now, you're twenty-eight and Harry's seven, your ages do not change the fact that you both saw it happen and it is normal for both of you to still be having nightmares."  
  
"But I hate to see him in pain."  
  
"This isn't a scarped knee or a twisted ankle Sirius, this is a scraped memory, and there is no magic spell that can fix that. The only thing you can is give Harry the love and comfort he needs when he wakes up from those dreams, which you have been doing and Harry has begun to get over them hasn't he?"  
  
There was a long pause before Sirius said," You're right Moony, absolutely right. Thank you."  
  
"No problem Sirius, but before I go may I mention something?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Harry is standing right behind you, and has probably heard this whole conversation."  
  
Sirius whirled around as Harry tired to duck out of sight. "Harry?" Sirius said in a low voice as he looked at the mop of black hair that was betraying its owner's hiding place. "Come here runt."  
  
Harry shuffled over to his godfather, hanging his head.  
  
Sirius knelt down so he was on eye level with the boy, and ruffle his hair as a sign that everything was all right.  
  
"Want to say hello to Moony?" Sirius asked.  
  
"Okay," Harry said in a small voice, and turned to see Remus's head floating in the fireplace. "Hi Moony!"  
  
Remus smiled gently, "Hi Harry, whatever are you doing up so late?"  
  
Harry shrugged, yawning.  
  
Sirius grinned, "Want to stay with me tonight Emeralds?"  
  
Harry nodded, not quite sure what Sirius meant by that, but decided to go along with it. "I'll be seeing you two in the morning I suppose," Remus said fighting back a yawn.  
  
"Yeah, good night Moony," Sirius said.  
  
"'Night Remus!" Harry added.  
  
"Good night Harry! Good night Padfoot!" said Remus before his head disappear from the fireplace with a pop!  
  
Sirius waved at the now normal fire before putting a strong, protective arm around his godson's shoulders.  
  
Harry blinked sleepily up at him.  
  
"Come on Harry, back to bed."  
  
Harry nodded drowsily, allowing Sirius to guide him back to his room.  
  
But they did not enter Harry's room; instead they went into the room across from Harry's.  
  
Instinctively, Harry scrambled up on the huge bed, burying his face in the pillow. He felt the bed sag under Sirius's added weight before an arm went around him.  
  
The boy's face was now buried in his godfather's chest.  
  
He heard Sirius whisper, "Sweet dreams Harry," before giving in to sleep itself. 


	11. A Knife in the Dark

A/n: What happens when you combine final exams, three-day field trips, lavish end-of-the-year dances, award ceremonies, and an endless string of School's Out parties?  
  
Sirius: *pointing to t-shirt* This nice gift you got me from your field trip?  
  
Whisp: Close but no cigar.  
  
Sirius: *banging head* I know! A really, really . . .  
  
Whisp: Long wait for the chapter?  
  
Sirius: No! A really, really bad sunburn!  
  
Whisp: Oi! True I did get a bad sun burn but that's beside the point. My school has an odd little rule that no matter how high your GPA is you still have to take finals. Whoever invented that rule will be getting a strongly worded letter from me shortly. As soon as finals were over we had to prepare for our lavish End-of-School dance. There was only one problem, the night of the dance we had a blackout and spent at least an in total darkness. But we got the power back and had a good time nonetheless.  
  
Our three-day trip to Washington/Bush Gardens/Williamsburg was the following Monday-Wednesday. We had Thursday off, and Friday was our last day ending with an awards ceremony at night. Yours truly made off with two awards (both for being the top student in Lit) and a nice $500 savings bond for some writing contest that I won. Odd, since I NEVER win anything.  
  
Immediately after the ceremony, let the parties begin! Over the course of the weekend I went to four parties, two of which became sleepovers in which no one slept. And I have another round of them this weekend.  
  
And _that_ Virginia is why this chapter took so long! (Not that I know anyone named Virginia ;)  
  
Thank you: FawkesnFlame (He's just dreaming . . . or is he?), carolann b. (Thank you very much! I'm truly honored! *bows*), lollipozz, Relle (Hehe, I completely sympathize. Harry is going to be seeing more things soon then you can shake a stick at), Time Twins, Roxane (I know, but it works itself nicely into the plot), sweets (Ah, you clever girl you! You picked up on some of the plot vital hints. Clever, clever, clever), Lavander Ice (Cryptic, yeah that describes it! (, Sandrine Black (Thanks!), Aniron Sauron Greenleaf-Took, Hound of Death (Time travel isn't on Harry's flight plans for this fic, yet), Amy, Eva Phoenix Potter, Gia, and summersun!  
  
As always deepest thanks to my amazing betas: Essence of Magic, sweets, and Immia. I don't know what I would do without them. (Actually I do, I'd still be on chapter 5 of this fic ( You girls are the greatest! Go on everybody read their work! Right now! This instance! Go on, all of you!  
  
Sequel to Harry Potter and the Emerald Eye. (I suggest you read that first, but you don't have to, it's just a good idea.) Harry's in for quite a year when he starts seeing things that no one else can, is it a dream? Or is he really going crazy? Questions start arising like what did Voldemort do to his victim after he killed them? This has it all; mystery, insanity, a lot of Sirius and Remus, and everyone calls Harry a lunatic at least once! ;)  
  
Disclaimer - This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I own the plot and a few original things. Elven itself all belongs to the master himself J. R. R. Tolkien. And of course references to "The Godfather" all belong to Mario Puzo since he wrote the book, and probably Francis Ford Coppola since he directed the movie.  
  
  
  
Chapter 11: A Knife in the Dark  
  
Tap! Pat! Tat!  
  
Harry strained his ears to discern the sound from his sleep clouded mind.  
  
Tap! Pat! Tat!  
  
Footsteps.  
  
This thought made its way slowly across Harry's brain waves. It sounded almost like somebody very nearby . . . almost on top of him.  
  
Tap! Pat! Tat!  
  
Then he realized it, the person who was walking was him.  
  
Harry forced his eyes open; dark, blurry shapes surrounded him. He blinked several times, but the shapes did not clear. He touched his pocket, slightly astonished to find himself in his pajamas; he felt the familiar lump that was his glasses. He took them out and shoved them on. Shadows loomed in front of him, shadows that only came out when it was the dead of night.  
  
But never once did he wonder why he was walking, or why he could not stop. He was truly following his feet.  
  
His feet led him farther and farther into the castle. The shadows lengthened. The few torches that were lit were burning low.  
  
His bare feet slapped the freezing stones as he turned on last corner before finding himself face to face with . . . a demon!  
  
He leapt back, hands covering his face and throat, waiting for the pain.  
  
But it never came.  
  
Harry slowly opened his eyes (which he had closed), and brought his hands down, and laughed. What he thought had been a sharp toothed demon was actually a wall carving.  
  
Harry gazed upon the elegantly carved wall with a keen interest as his rapidly beating heart slowed down. The mahogany paneling featured a scene of angels ascending to heaven. The cherubic sculptures that issued from the wall smiled at him, their delicately carved wings spread to the heavens, the dainty fingers reached out as if beckoning the passersby to join them in their heavenly flight.  
  
Harry reached out to touch the glistening wood. He brushed up against the wood, it was so warm. He laid his hand up against the wooden one, to his amazement his hand fit perfectly against his.  
  
He looked up at the cherub's angelic face, it's large eyes, smiling chubby cheeks, carved curly hair that was done in such rich detail that if he did not know better he would have thought that someone had frozen a baby and paneled it with wood.  
  
As he admired the cherub's eyes, they looked so realistic, even the lashes were perfect. Then it blinked.  
  
Harry drew his face abruptly away, his own eyes as wide as the cherub's. It blinked again.  
  
The cherub's angelic face became twisted; the darling mouth curled into an ugly sneer, babyish eyes turned into slits, the curls became horns. Its slender fingers clamped around Harry's hand, and its feathery wings became like spikes ready to trap Harry. It screeched in a resounding voice:  
  
"An eye for an eye,  
  
A tooth for a tooth,  
  
A heart for a heart,  
  
A life for a life,  
  
A soul for a soul."  
  
Harry, eyes wide and terrified, kicked out at the cherub. He pulled back with all his might, yanking his hand free. He fell backward. He felt a rush of pain as his head cracked on the hard stone before the world went black.  
  
  
  
  
  
Somewhere in the far recesses of Harry's mind there was a sharp, incessant call. He felt a strong instinct to turn toward the voice. Wanting his eye to open to show this person that he was indeed alive, and heard him.  
  
But . . . oh! How his head hurt! It was pounding like a beating drum. At that moment the voice's owner tapped him sharply at his temple.  
  
"Harry!"  
  
Then it hit him—so to speak. He had been walking, and the cherub . . . the cherub! It had changed . . . it had become . . . a demon?  
  
Struggling, Harry forced his eyes open and shut them again immediately, yelping.  
  
"Sorry about that Harry, one sec," the voice said quickly. Harry heard the switch click, and the bright amber light that has startled him die down a bit. "Better?"  
  
Harry started to nod, but stopped almost instantly. He now knew how it felt to be thumped by the Wholloping Willow.  
  
"'Irius," he muttered, his voice horribly slurred.  
  
"Right here," Sirius said as Harry struggled to sit up. "Easy," he instructed, supporting the boy's back with one hand.  
  
"What happened?" asked Harry.  
  
"That's what I'd like to know," Sirius said, his eyes boring into Harry's. "As far as I can tell you went for a midnight stroll, and nearly cracked your head open."  
  
"I must have been sleepwalking."  
  
Sirius looked at him incredulously.  
  
"Honestly, Sir. I must of slipped."  
  
His godfather nodded. "You could enrage a bull with the back of your head," he said without mirth.  
  
Harry quirked the corner of his mouth a bit. "How'd you find me?"  
  
"This marvelous, wholly amazing, all-inspiring, all together godlike invention helped me." Sirius held up the Marauders' Map. "Gave me a good scare when I went to check on you, and found your bed empty."  
  
"Sorry, blame my sub-conscious. It's nutters, not me."  
  
Sirius tried not to smile, but failed. "All right, all right," he said, shaking his head. "Do you think you can stand?"  
  
"I guess." Harry clambered slowly to his feet, blinking furiously to clear his spiraling vision.  
  
Thankfully, Sirius allowed him to lean against him as they walked. Sirius did not press the issue of his godson's sleepwalking until the reached Harry's dorm room.  
  
"No wonder they say sleepwalking is dangerous," he said as wiped the blood from the back of Harry's head and hair.  
  
"It still hurts though," Harry muttered dully, resting his chin on his fist.  
  
"No deep wound though, grazed it really. As far as I can tell you'll be fine, aside from a beauty of a headache in the morning."  
  
"Oh joy," Harry said, leaning back on his pillows as Sirius went to rinse out the cloth he had been using.  
  
Sirius laughed coming back into the room, shaking a few droplets of water from his hands. "Then no more sleepwalking tonight," he said, a parental note in his voice.  
  
"Yes sir." Harry slid down under the covers, his eyelids suddenly very heavy.  
  
Sirius reached out, and ruffled his hair fondly. He stopped for a moment as if he was debating whether to do something else, but shook his head and ruffled Harry's hair once again.  
  
Harry leaned into the touch.  
  
"'Night kid," Sirius said, blowing out the candle, and leaving the room.  
  
Harry turned over, and closed his eyes. He did not see Sirius enter the room again, and stay there, watching him all night for fear that he might leave again. Or worse yet for someone to come into the room . . . Sirius shuddered at the thought.  
  
Harry only drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.  
  
~*~  
  
The rest of the Christmas holiday passed uneventfully, except for some routine—for Sirius—Mot dodging. But still the memory, fuzzy though it was, lingered in Harry's mind. Had he really seen what he thought he saw? Or he had just fallen victim to a bout of sleep-walking?  
  
Before he could decide on either the silent halls of Hogwarts became noisy once again. And the only thing on the professors' minds were the O. W. L. s.  
  
The O. W. L. s were, as Gudgeon had so articulately explained to them, the defining mark in whether you had learned anything in your five years at Hogwarts. Depending on how well you perform on the exams as decided whether or not you qualified for advanced classes, or extra help in others.  
  
By the sound of it Harry reckoned that next year he wouldn't be seeing Hermione in any regular classes, and he'd be seeing a whole lot more of Snape.  
  
Either way Gudgeon still gave them a boat load of homework that included a six foot essay on Tuatha, Merlin's grandfather who during a great fiery battle had cursed the dragon Valdearg into an enchanted sleep which was to last until the end of time but did not.  
  
"Reasons why Valdearg awoke, and for the fun of it try figuring out which sleeping curse Tuatha used. And no, Sleeping Beauty won't help you."  
  
"They're playing at it as if we were going to graduate tomorrow," Ron grumbled as they shuffled out of Defense en route to Transfiguration.  
  
"Well, we are in a way," Hermione said, wiping some jelly like substance off of her wand. "I mean we will only have two more years here, and they want us to be prepared. Back in the late 70s hardly any witch or wizard went onto college, they all stayed to fight the war against you-Know- Who relying only on their Hogwarts education."  
  
Harry looked at Hermione pointedly.  
  
"Don't look at me like that Harry; I had no intention of going into _that_. I'm merely stating a fact."  
  
"Yeah, the fact that you spend way to much time in the library Hermione," Ron said with a smirk.  
  
Hermione huffed loudly, "This coming from the boy who is afraid of spiders."  
  
"I have a reason to keep out of that section then," Ron shot back.  
  
Harry held back a moan.  
  
Thankfully their banter only lasted a few minutes longer before they arrived at the Transfiguration classroom. Upon entering they were slightly surprised to find that McGonagall had cleared off her desk, and seemed to only have her wand (which usually doubled as a pointer) and a long piece of chalk with her.  
  
Ron stifled a groan. They were going to take down long, explicated notes.  
  
Harry slid into his seat and took out his notebook and quill, sighing. "More notes, what fun."  
  
"My heart is racing with the anticipation," Ron said, clutching his heart comically.  
  
Hermione sniggered along with Harry even though they knew she enjoyed taking notes.  
  
"And now that Mr. Weasley has gotten his round of chuckles," McGonagall said sharply from the front of the classroom. "Would you kindly direct your attention to the front of the room, and we will get on with our Animagi review."  
  
Whispers flew threw the classroom. This explained the empty desk, she was planning to transform. But then how was she going to conduct a review while she was a cat? Dean chose to verbalize these thoughts.  
  
McGonagall raised an eyebrow, "Apparently rumors don't fly around this school as much as I thought they did. I surely thought you'd know that—"  
  
CRASH!  
  
A muffled swear and the croaking voice of a suit of armor soon followed. McGonagall sighed, shaking her head as a moment later the person who had crashed in the suit of armor skidded into the room.  
  
"Some things never change do they Professor Black?"  
  
Sirius grinned sheepishly, rubbing his head. He wasn't wearing the customary work robes that all the professors wore. Instead he wore the black t-shirt and jeans that Harry usually only saw him in. "Well, you see there was this nuclear explosion and then there was this spaceship and then . . ."  
  
"I don't want to know," sighed McGonagall before turning back to the class. Most of which were leaning over their desks curiously. "Professor Black has graciously offered to be our guinea pig for our review."  
  
"He's an Animagi?" several people asked in unison before rounding on Harry.  
  
"Is he Harry?"  
  
"What does he turn into?"  
  
"Have you seen him transform?"  
  
"Is that how he got out of Azkaban?"  
  
"Before you attack Mr. Potter!" McGonagall said quickly as Harry sunk down in his seat. She waited for the students to settle down in their own seats again before speaking again. "As I was saying before you attack Mr. Potter with your questions I suggest you allow Professor Black to transform." She gestured for Sirius to transform.  
  
Sirius firmly took one step backwards. Then another and another until he was out the door.  
  
"Maybe he's having second thoughts," Ron suggested standing up to see where Sirius had gone.  
  
"No," Harry said doubtfully.  
  
"Maybe he wants to make a show of it?" Hermione whispered.  
  
And make a show of it he did. Sirius sprinted forward, jumping but two hands did not hit the desktop. But two paws did.  
  
Standing atop Professor McGonagall's desk like he was being shown at Crufts was a large, shaggy dog with a glistening black coat.  
  
"Padfoot," Harry breathed.  
  
Every single student leaned forward to get a better look at the dog, ooh-ing and aww-ing. Sirius was eating it all up, wagging his feathery tail, pulling his lips back to smile, even barking playfully.  
  
"Yes, yes, good show Professor Black," McGonagall said, clapping her hands lightly. "Now that we have all inflated your ego a little more . . ."  
  
Padfoot's tail dropped.  
  
"We may continue with our lesson." McGonagall drew her wand, and pointed it at Sirius. "An animagi's form is based on several characteristics, for instances since he has black hair his coat took on that color. Now why would Professor Black's form be a dog?"  
  
A series of shrugs and questioning looks rippled across the room.  
  
"Mr. Potter, any ideas?" McGonagall sighed.  
  
"He's loyal? And . . . er . . . protective of his friends?"  
  
"And godchild," Ron added, grinning.  
  
"Both correct Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley."  
  
Harry and Ron grinned sheepishly as Padfoot wagged his tail again. Harry by now knew what every gesture the dog made meant, and gave him a crooked smile.  
  
McGonagall turned to Sirius, "As for an Animagi's anatomy, the dog's size reflects Black's height, and its body weight is similar to Black's own. His eyes also remain the same dark color and look of his eyes when he is in both human and animal forms. Now if Professor Black would kindly roll over for us . . . What seems to be the matter Professor?"  
  
Sirius was frantically shaking his head, his tail tucked firmly between his legs.  
  
"You have nothing to be ashamed of," the older professor said, with a soft smile.  
  
If dogs could blush Sirius would have been scarlet by now.  
  
"Now come along Professor, I'll conjure a towel if that will help an . . . yes Professor?"  
  
Harry's head turned toward the doorway and gulped when he saw who it was.  
  
"Professor Snape?" McGonagall repeated.  
  
Snape strode in, solemn faced. "There has been a development," he said, just barely audible.  
  
Harry leaned forward a bit to hear them better.  
  
"After class Severus," said McGonagall shortly.  
  
Snape shook his head, "Dismiss them now then."  
  
McGonagall traded a series of looks with Snape before addressing the class. "We will continue this lesson tomorrow, dismissed."  
  
There was a scrapping of desks and a rustling of book bags as they were slung on their owners' backs. The Gryffindors paraded out of the room in their own sort of organized chaos. Harry looked back to watch Padfoot transform back into Sirius.  
  
Sirius turned and locked eyes with his godson, giving him a look that plainly said, "Go, this does not concern you."  
  
Nodding, Harry left.  
  
Halfway down the corridor he found Ron and Hermione waiting for him. "What's next?" he asked, his mind still back in the Transfiguration room.  
  
"Break," Ron said as Thor barked at Harry.  
  
It was then that Harry realized his own furry headache was not with him. "Bugger," he swore under his breath. "Go on without me, I have to go find Apollo."  
  
"We'll come with you," Hermione said briskly.  
  
"Okay," Harry agreed, and they headed back to the classroom. "He must be inside," whispered Harry, noticing that the door was left ajar. "Wait for me."  
  
With that he slipped back into the room. After years of living with the Dursleys Harry had learned the fine art of opening a door and entering a room soundlessly. He spotted Apollo lying contently under his desk.  
  
Harry dropped silently to his knees and crawled over to the Pooka, but stopped when he realized that the Professors were speaking loudly enough to be overheard.  
  
"Where?" asked McGonagall urgently.  
  
"Just outside of Hogsmeade," hissed Snape.  
  
"But it was two nights ago," Sirius said quickly, shaking his head.  
  
Snape rolled his eyes, "Thank you for stating the obvious Black."  
  
Sirius huffed.  
  
"But as you hopefully know some of them can change at will."  
  
"The damned ones," snarled Sirius.  
  
"Yes," McGonagall injected. "And they ravage, but not infect."  
  
"And if they do that than even a cure would not save them so why does . . ."  
  
"It _still_ can Black, but it cannot stop them from living a cursed life."  
  
"Unless?" Sirius prompted.  
  
Snape sighed, "He's offering them a life of luxury, and some are already starting to believe him."  
  
"The ones who are tired," McGonagall said softly, bowing her head.  
  
"Then _why_," demanded Sirius, "does he want them?"  
  
"They are powerful beings, and even if they are damned their strength does not leave them," Snape said matter-of-factly. "You should above all know that Black since you are . . . Potter!"  
  
Harry jumped, tumbling backward, knocking into his desk, and sending it clattering to the floor. Thoroughly embarrassed, Harry scrambled to his feet and righted the desk, "Er, sorry! I was looking for my Pooka!"  
  
"You okay?" Sirius asked concernedly.  
  
"Yeah," Harry replied, rubbing the back of his head and glaring at Apollo.  
  
The Pooka wagged its tail innocently as Harry heard, "Five points from Gryffindor."  
  
~~~  
  
"Bedtime Harry," Sirius said, closing an Elven text, and leaning back in his desk chair.  
  
Harry yawned, handing Sirius the book he had been using and rubbing his eyes sleepily.  
  
"What, no protests tonight?"  
  
"Too tired," Harry said thickly, getting to his feet. "'Night Siri."  
  
Harry's hand was on the door knob when Sirius spoke up again.  
  
"Harry, wait a moment."  
  
A shiver ran down Harry's spine. Although it had never been directed at him he knew that tone--from Muggle movies, television shows, and the like--he was going to get a parental lecture. His first ever.  
  
"Yes?" Harry asked timidly as he came back into the room and sunk back into the armchair. He was a bit nervous although he didn't understand why  
  
"You look like I'm sending you to the gallows," Sirius said wryly, kneeling down in front of him.  
  
"Well this is one of those "you did something wrong talks" isn't it?" Harry countered though his voice was close to a whisper. He didn't look Sirius in the face just down at his hands.  
  
"Well, yes, but it's not like I'm going to yell at you or anything like that," Sirius assured him. "Just a longwinded lecture."  
  
"Oh joy." Harry said glumly. "Long winded as in Professor Binns long winded or as in Lupin long winded?" He asked as an after thought  
  
"Long winded as in Sirius Black long winded," Sirius corrected, taking Harry's chin in his right hand and forcing him to look him in the eye.  
  
"Okay. I've never heard a Sirius Black long winded speech before. I'll make comparison later." Harry wisecracked.  
  
"We'll see," Sirius said before sighing. "We might as well get it over with then . . . you know what this it about I assume."  
  
Harry sighed and tried to look down at his hands but Sirius's hand was still under his chin. "About when I was looking for Apollo this afternoon?" he said glumly.  
  
"Right. You know that eavesdropping is wrong, right?"  
  
"Yes. But I wasn't trying to eavesdrop honest. I was just looking for Apollo. I tried to be quiet because Snape would have sent me away." Harry answered before Sirius could reply. "Besides you would have done the same... The Marauders seemed to have broken more rules then I have...?" Harry trailed off afraid he had said too much.  
  
Sirius ran a hand through his hair sheepishly. "Walked right into that one didn't I?"  
  
Harry flinched for a split second when Sirius ran his hand through his hair afraid that it would come down on him. He couldn't help remembering if he talked back to Uncle Vernon he would have gotten a beating he would never have forgotten. He shook himself mentally and answered "Hook, line and sinker."  
  
"Back on topic runtlet," smirked Sirius before adopting his no nonsense tone of voice again. "You know full well what the consequences are for eavesdropping."  
  
Harry shook his head nervously. The Dursleys' forms of consequences were a solid rapt 'round the head and a nice night in the cupboard with no meals.  
  
"Harry?" Sirius said quietly. "You're trembling."  
  
Harry sat up straight as Sirius removed his hand. He _was_ shaking.  
  
"Sorry," he murmured.  
  
"Dursley," spat Sirius catching on. "Is this what they drilled into your skull?"  
  
"More of a reflex. Burn the toast or the bacon and bam! In the cupboard for a week with only two bathroom breaks a day and solid ..."Harry drifted off, slapping a hand over his mouth. He never meant to go into all that. He wondered how Sirius could easily get him to spill his guts out, saying things that he wouldn't even tell Ron and Hermione.  
  
Sirius was quiet a while, mulling over his thoughts. "These consequences are much, much fairer," he said finally.  
  
"They are?"  
  
"Yes, now do you have _any_ idea whatsoever about what we were speaking about?"  
  
"No sir," Harry said truthfully. He had thought about it a great deal during dinner and Quidditch practice but he couldn't make sense of it.  
  
He took Harry's chin gently in his hand again, forcing the boy to look his straight in the eye.  
  
Harry squirmed uneasily. He hated this, those unnerving looks always gave him the feeling that Sirius could see into his very soul and suck out the information he needed. Almost like how Snape gave him the haunting feeling that he could read minds.  
  
"Sirius, I'm telling the truth," he said trying to break the iron hold his godfather had on his eyes.  
  
"I know," said Sirius leaning back on his heels, breaking the stare.  
  
Harry blinked several times asking, "Then _why_ the staring contest?"  
  
"That was the long winded-part."  
  
"Pretty quiet for the long-winded part."  
  
"It spoke volumes to you I assume."  
  
"It did," Harry agreed. "It said to me never to get caught by you again if I don't want another stare down."  
  
Sirius rolled his eyes, "You make me sound like some sort of animal staring down its prey."  
  
"That's sort of how it felt really," Harry said sheepishly.  
  
"Really?" was all Sirius said before there was a soft pop!, and Harry found himself nose-to-nose with a black, wet nose.  
  
"Sirius!" Harry cried, the momentary shock was enough to send him over the arm of the chair and to the floor. Although he was grinning when he looked up at the dog again, "Wish you wouldn't do that."  
  
The dog wagged its tail once giving Harry a look that plainly said: Is this better, before giving him a brief stare down.  
  
Harry laughed, scratching the top of Padfoot's head vigorously. "You're definitely one of a kind godfather-wise Snuffles."  
  
Padfoot growled deeply at the mention of his former nom-de-plum before snapping back into human form. "Don't call me that."  
  
Harry smirked cheekily, "How about godfather?"  
  
"No thanks, I'm not the ringleader of the Italian mafia," Sirius said, fighting a smile.  
  
"Er, is this the end of the lecture?" asked Harry timidly.  
  
"Almost, do you promise not to do it again?"  
  
"I promise to _ try_ not to do it again, but you know how trouble always seems to find me," Harry said innocently.  
  
"Remind me to put an trouble detector on you," Sirius said dryly. "It'll bleep every time you come too close to danger."  
  
"Yes sir," Harry murmured, bowing his head.  
  
"Good. The lecture is over as far a I'm concerned now," Sirius's entire demeanor brightened once those words left his mouth.  
  
Harry grinned. It felt as though the entire room which had felt dark, cold, and foreboding to him through most of the lecture (the part where Sirius transformed being the exception) had once again become bright, warm, and welcoming.  
  
"Is this the part where you send me back to Gryffindor tower?" he asked.  
  
"Right," said Sirius, tossing him the invisibility cloak, "G'night Harry."  
  
"'Night Sirius," Harry replied as he pulled the hood of the cloak over his head and seemingly disappeared.  
  
He walked silently as possible through the corridors—a skill that he had acquired from his many late night escapades—being wary of Filch and Mrs. Norris.  
  
The halls were eerily quiet that night. There wasn't a soul out and about, not even Peeves. It was unnerving. He walked a little faster, not caring whether he made noise or not.  
  
"Out for a late night stroll?"  
  
Harry froze.  
  
"What do you mean by that?" said a voice that Harry recognized as Lupin's.  
  
"You've heard by now I'm sure," said the first. It was very low and very bitter.  
  
"Yes I have Davey," replied Lupin.  
  
Gudgeon, Harry thought bringing the cloak tighter around him.  
  
"What do you have to say then?"  
  
Harry, quite curious by now, crept forward a little to better see the professors. Lupin was a mixture of calmness but there was an intense fire in his eyes. Gudgeon on the other hand looked as bitter as if he had just eaten sour honey, but his eyes held the intense fire as did Lupin's.  
  
"I still do not understand," said Lupin solemnly.  
  
"Did you know him?" said Gudgeon sharply.  
  
"How do you know it was a him?"  
  
"Then you did."  
  
"And if I did?"  
  
Gudgeon sneered, "Than you should have stopped him."  
  
"Crocs and I do not get along," stated Lupin. "He is a lone, I have no control over him."  
  
Gudgeon rolled his eyes. "Do think I'm going to believe that, _Moony_?"  
  
Lupin recoiled as Gudgeon moved forward, "I should hope you would, Davey."  
  
"Don't call me that," spat Gudgeon.  
  
"It's childish to hold grudges this long, Davey," challenged Lupin. His voice took on a wolfish list. "You never had to take the dare." His eyes flicked up to the scar above Gudgeon's eye.  
  
Fury flashed across Gudgeon's face as his hand went to his robe and revealed something that Harry couldn't see, but it caused Lupin to tremble. "Perhaps you should warn your four-legged friend that this is what will happen to him if I ever meet him."  
  
Lupin and Gudgeon locked eyes. Intense hate mixed with deep respect met in such a way that caused Harry to expect a roaring fire to spark in mid- air.  
  
"A beast is only beast," growled Gudgeon.  
  
"That is true but I am not one," hissed Lupin. "I am a wolf."  
  
Harry, suddenly realizing how hard his heart was beating, took a step back. His foot caught on his cloak and he tumbled backwards.  
  
Lupin and Gudgeon looked around wildly for the source of the sound as Harry held his breath.  
  
"Must have been a ghost," Lupin said knowingly. Harry took that moment to get to his feet.  
  
"Perhaps," said Gudgeon grudgingly.  
  
Harry walked carefully past them, their words echoing in his head. "A beast is only beast," growled Gudgeon.  
  
"That is true but I am not one," hissed Lupin. "I am a wolf."  
  
Harry shook his head as he walked on, noticing where he was going. His mind was all ready at work sorting at the conversation until something caught his eye.  
  
He stepped back to that a second look. It was a pair of yellow eyes shining out into the darkness like two search lights. They sent a chill down his spine. But he could not make out who they belonged to.  
  
"Lumos," he whispered lighting his wand and holding it out. The hood of his cloak fell back as he so.  
  
The wand tip illuminated the wiry, black body of a giant, foaming wolf that stood over . . .  
  
The body of a young, blonde hair woman who was surrounded by a pool of murky, black water.  
  
Harry locked eyes with the wolf.  
  
It sprang forward, eyes blazing, teeth poised for Harry's neck. 


	12. Oh! It was Professor Plum in the Library...

A/n: Here's your eagerly awaited chapter! The chapter title comes from the movie "A Few Good Men" Sirius: A great movie! Whisp: Yes, and so I don't even own that! Sirius: What do you _own_? Whisp: Nothing really, but I'm going to see Reign of Fire tonight and I'll have a full review in the next pulse-pounding chapter! Sirius: In other words you'll find out how much she drooled over Christian Bale. *rolls eyes* Whisp: Sirius! . . . Uh oh, we got to go! Enjoy the chapter! And Sirius it's your turn to pay for the popcorn. Sirius: What?!  
  
Thank you to my amazing betas that always come through for me Essence of Magic, Immia, sweets and Hound of Darkness. And special thanks to sweets for helping me RP some of this chapter and the beginning of the next! I order you to check out their stories; I promise you'll love them!  
  
And especially thank you to my reviews! You guys ROCK!  
  
Sequel to Harry Potter and the Emerald Eye. (I suggest you read that first, but you don't have to, it's just a good idea.) Harry's in for quite a year when he starts seeing things that no one else can, is it a dream? Or is he really going crazy? Questions start arising like what did Voldemort do to his victim after he killed them? This has it all; mystery, insanity, a lot of Sirius and Remus, and everyone calls Harry a lunatic at least once! ;)  
  
Disclaimer - This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I own the plot and a few original things. Elven itself all belongs to the master himself J. R. R. Tolkien.  
  
Chapter 12: Oh! It Was Professor Plum in the Library with a Candlestick  
  
Harry screamed.  
  
Up until this very day he never quite knew what had given him the impulse to scream. He had never been a screamer, especially when facing impending doom. This most likely came from his previous experiences with it. But in all probability what gave him the reaction to scream was that this time there appeared to be no way of escaping. He could feel the wolf's hot breath on his face. Squeezing his eyes shut quickly, he waited for the pain. But it never came. Not even a twinge. He would have felt his jugular vein being ripped out, wouldn't he? He cracked an eye open at the sound of oncoming footsteps. Almost immediately he felt a light pressure on his shoulder, and a second later a strong arm went around his waist and was pulled close to someone. He looked up and saw it was Sirius.  
  
His godfather was not looking at him though but at a point beyond him. Harry turned his head slowly. The wolf was nowhere in sight. The woman's body was still there, floating in a pool of her own blood. Her stomach was torn open, and her left arm was partially severed. Harry looked away.  
  
"Are you all right Harry?"  
  
Harry turned around to see Lupin at Sirius's side. "Yes sir," he said shakily as a hand went instinctively to his throat. Everything was intact.  
  
"What happened?" Sirius asked, his voice sounded distant as though it were miles away. When Harry looked up into his eyes they held the look that he had seen on the faces of soldiers in his Muggle history books back at primary school. The same understanding look, tinged with fear like he knew exactly what was coming on, but did not need to voice it.  
  
"I-" Harry began but he was cut off by a sharp voice.  
  
"What is going on . . . oh dear." Professor McGonagall in her green tartan dressing grown, and cap was hurrying toward them; a look of alarm took over her face. She stopped next to Sirius looking from the body to Sirius and Lupin and back again before her eyes came to rest on Harry. Harry dared not to look up at her. He had the gut feeling that she was not surprised to find him here. "Sirius?" she questioned, looking sternly at Sirius.  
  
"None whatsoever Professor," Sirius muttered. He let go of Harry's waist somewhat reluctantly, and knelt down next to the body. He was careful not to tread in the pool of blood. "Moony," he said after peering at some of the wounds. "Come take a look at this,"  
  
Lupin stepped forward, and knelt next to Sirius. He leaned his head this way and that before looking at Sirius questioningly. "Looks fine to me."  
  
"It is," Sirius said, "if the blood was still in the body."  
  
They all looked at Sirius for an explanation, which he willingly gave.  
  
"Look, here, here, and here." He said pointing at the appropriate regions of gash. "You know as well as I do that blood clots several seconds after being exposed. But she has no sign of it. Werewolf bites split the skin, I know it does. The skin doesn't even look like it was trying to draw together, and the only way it wouldn't have been able to is if the teeth, claws, whatever were three bladed causing two sides to be able to draw together but not the third. I mean this is or was Gladys Gudgeon wasn't it?"  
  
Harry gasped. So that was why Gudgeon was so furious with Lupin. A werewolf had attacked his wife or sister or somebody related to him. He looked at the body once again, and held back a grimace.  
  
"Particularly nasty wouldn't you say?"  
  
Harry jumped and (for the second time that night) screamed. Standing beside him was the completely transparent form of Nearly-Headless Nick. Decked out in his usual plumed hat and ruff, which hid the fact that his neck was almost but not completely severed. The sliver of skin that was testament to his own botched beheading prevented Nick from participating in the annual Headless Hunt. Harry had once attended Nick's Deathday Party, something that he wasn't counting on attending again anytime soon.  
  
"Er, yes," Harry said, wondering how long Nick had been floating there.  
  
"Nick, could you go fetch Madam Pomfrey for us please?" said McGonagall also noticing the ghost. "I think it would be best if we moved her to the hospital wing."  
  
"Right," Sirius and Lupin mumbled getting to their feet, brushing off their outer robes.  
  
"Follow me, my room is the closest," McGonagall said.  
  
Harry-not being told to go back to Gryffindor tower-figured he was included in this little powwow, and followed his Head of House.  
  
McGonagall's room was very neat and orderly, but her study (where she led them) something akin to Sirius's. Tests and long essays were piled haphazardly about the floor. Most of them had comments scribbled in red ink on them. (One Harry recognized as his but thankfully he had received a high mark on it.) She indicated for them to sit in the armchairs after she had taken the several stacks of third year essays off of them.  
  
"I don't like the look of this," McGonagall said once they were all seated. "Bodies mysteriously appearing in the middle of the night . . . there could be a werewolf running around the castle for all we know."  
  
"Wouldn't be," Lupin said knowledgably. "We don't lurk in places like castles. It's instinct, not even a damned wolf would stay in Hogwarts for long."  
  
McGonagall nodded. "Then what are we to assume happened to her? She died from lost of blood?"  
  
"But the blood didn't clot! And she's been dead for a day at least!" Sirius snapped. "Even if she died instantly there would be a small sign of clotting . . . unless . . ."  
  
"Yes Sirius?"  
  
"The wounds were inflicted after she had died."  
  
"No," Remus said abruptly. "Werewolves only kill their prey they don't eat it, or continue to cause harm after the prey is dead. And they certainly don't drag it."  
  
"Then," Sirius said shakily, "it wasn't a werewolf? But they were werewolf bites, weren't they?"  
  
Remus nodded, "No other creature can cause bites like that. At least none that I know of."  
  
"Quite right," said Nearly-Headless Nick who came floating into the room.  
  
"Yes?" McGonagall said testily.  
  
"It appears that the young lady has," Nick frowned slightly, "walked off."  
  
"Walked off?!" cried four voices in unison.  
  
"Completely vanished, blood and all."  
  
Sirius stood up and began to pace.  
  
Harry faintly wondered if there was some kind of world record for pacing because he was sure that Sirius would have broken it by now.  
  
"Where was she found again Minerva?" Sirius asked.  
  
"In the lobby," McGonagall said, refraining from reminding him that he had been there.  
  
"No, no, where did that bloke say he saw the attack?"  
  
"In the woods just beyond Hogsmeade."  
  
Sirius clapped his hands, and before anyone could blink an eye he had his cloak on and was out the door.  
  
Harry, Lupin, and McGonagall all stared at each other for a moment before Harry and Lupin sprang to their feet in pursuit of Sirius.  
  
They stopped when they saw one of the heavy oak doors swinging slightly on its rusty hinges. They ran forward, pulled it open, and peered out into the dark night. Harry could just make out a figure running through the Hogwart's gates.  
  
"I'm going after him," muttered Harry decisively.  
  
Lupin looked at him uncertainly before waving his wand once.  
  
Harry's mouth opened slightly as his own cloak flew into Lupin's empty hand.  
  
"Better hurry," he whispered handing it to Harry. "Keep your wits about you."  
  
"Yes sir," and with that Harry shot off into the night after his godfather.  
  
Harry ran as fast and as silently as he could, eager to catch up to Sirius, and not wishing to meet up with the wolf again. He could still picture the beast's eyes as clearly as if someone had burned the image in the back of his head.  
  
He kept looking back and forth as he ran down the short path between Hogwarts and the entrance to Hogsmeade. His wand drawn and always at the ready. He had just passed Honeydukes when he heard:  
  
"I thought I told you not to follow."  
  
"You never said anything to me," Harry said catching up to his godfather. He was walking at such a swift pace that Harry had to jog to keep up with him.  
  
Sirius, on the other hand, did not notice his godson's struggle to keep up with him. He knew exactly where he was going. He hadn't spent all that time in Hogsmeade last year without learning about a few new additions since his years at Hogwarts.  
  
Crash!  
  
Harry jumped, moving closer to his godfather, but he didn't need to. Sirius already had a hand on his shoulder, and his wand out.  
  
"It's nothing," Sirius said, pointing his lighted wand at a squirrel as it run past. "Probably ran into a garbage can or something." But it took several seconds before he fully removed his hand from Harry's shoulder.  
  
They walked on for a while longer before Sirius turned sharply to the left and continued up a small hill for a bit before coming to a stop in front of a squat, brown building.  
  
"Hogsmeade's Law Enforcement Agency," Sirius explained.  
  
Harry gave him a questioning look.  
  
"Hey, I don't name these places," Sirius muttered. He walked up to the door and tried it. Harry figured it was locked since Sirius tapped sharply on the glass window and waved a bit.  
  
Harry walked up beside him as a heavy set man opened the door.  
  
"What do ye want at this time a' night?" growled the man.  
  
Sirius shouldered his way inside. "Good evening, I'm Detective White and this is my assistant, we're here to investigate a werewolf attack that was reported this morning."  
  
The man blinked. "Do ye have to do it _now_?"  
  
"Why yes my good sir," Sirius said briskly. "Can't go about during the morning hours, far too many people mulling around I dare say, peering over your shoulder and the like. Besides werewolf attacks are quick nasty to look at and very complex, a lot of concentration is needed as I'm sure a man of your expertise knows." He said all of this in a very high- pitched voice as if he had one too many cups of coffee.  
  
The man blinked again as though he had never seen anyone quite like Sirius in the day much less the nighttime. "Well . . . I . . . er . . . o' course," he faltered.  
  
"Wonderful!" Sirius said jovially. "Now if you would just show us to the morgue."  
  
"What about da kid?" the man pointed at Harry. "Ain't he gonna be scared?"  
  
"Him?" Sirius said looking at Harry, seeing the eagerness in his eyes. "Of course not! He's been in places like these loads of time. My! He could tell you such interesting stories, you wouldn't believe! There was that time in Kent . . ."  
  
Sirius babbled as the man led them to a recessed door in the far back of the building. There he preformed several unlocking charms before pulling it open for Harry and Sirius to enter. "Da number is 173," he said.  
  
The first thing Harry realized about the morgue was that it smelled horrid. Like three- day old fish mixed with rotten eggs. He suppressed the urge to cover his mouth with his hand and hold his breath. Sirius had said that he had been in places like this before, and he didn't want to risk the guard seeing him cringing.  
  
The morgue itself was a long narrow room with rows of mint green drawers as far as Harry could see. It gave him the feeling of being surrounded by giant filing cabinets.  
  
Sirius seemed to be paying more attention to the numbers than anything else. He stopped shortly at one row halfway down. "Here it is," he said pointing at number 173. "Do you want to look away?"  
  
"I'll try not to," Harry replied, feeling a little queasy.  
  
"It's okay if you do, you know," Sirius assured him before swiftly pulling the drawer out.  
  
At the last second Harry's courage failed him and he squeezed his eyes shut.  
  
"Boy, do I hate always being right," Sirius grumbled.  
  
Harry cracked an eye open.  
  
"It's okay, you can look."  
  
Harry peered into the drawer to find himself staring at the sterile, silver bottom of it.  
  
Sirius closed the drawer solemnly. "C'mon, let's go alert him," he said leading the way back upstairs. Harry was quite glad they were leaving because he had the feeling he would have been in need of some smelling salt if they stayed a minute longer.  
  
"Find anything?" the guard said, who was selecting a doughnut from a nearby box when they emerged.  
  
"Nothing," Sirius said in the chipper voice again.  
  
"Eh?" the guard said confused.  
  
"Nothing at all simply because," Sirius brought his face close to the guard's, "there was nothing there."  
  
The guard jumped, sputtering furiously.  
  
"And since there was nothing there, I do believe our murder has turned into a hunt for a couple of body snatchers," Sirius said making his way unobtrusively towards the door. "Thank you for your time, but we must be going before the scoundrel slips away again." With that he opened the door and they turned to leave when the guard shouted:  
  
"Wait! I neva got yer identification!"  
  
Sirius whirled Harry around so they were both facing the guard. He brought Harry close to him and pushed up his bangs revealing the lightning bolt scar. "That's our identification." Then they bolted from the place leaving a very shocked guard in their wake.  
  
"Well that was fun," Sirius said in his normal voice as they walked through the town streets again.  
  
Harry nodded. "Where are we going now?" he whispered.  
  
"The next logical place," replied his godfather as they came to a halt at a stop a little ways past the Shrieking Shack.  
  
Harry looked up at where they were.  
  
"A graveyard."  
  
Harry gulped. He felt extremely uncomfortable around graveyards, the events of last year still resurfaced in his mind every time he saw one.  
  
Sirius took no notice of his godson's obvious trepidation; he was far too concerned with examining the iron fence. Harry watched as his godfather walked the length of it in one direction then turned around, and went the other way. Sirius found one spot where the fence was dilapidated enough that he could cross it in a small jump. "All right," he said running a distressed hand through his tangled hair. "You stay here. Don't come after me. If you hear anything I want you to run straight back to Hogwarts, okay? Don't wait for me."  
  
"But Sir. . ."  
  
"No "buts" Harry. I'll be back in a bit okay?"  
  
Harry nodded, clutching his wand tightly.  
  
Sirius gave him a reassuring smile before vaulting the gate.  
  
Harry tried to keep Sirius in sight for as long as possible. But soon his godfather was swallowed up by the quickly descending fog.  
  
With Sirius gone Harry suddenly noticed just how quiet the streets of Hogsmeade were at night. It was enough to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.  
  
His senses seemed to be heightened by this. Every breath of wind his ears seemed to pick up every leaf that blew even if it was ever so slightly.  
  
After one or two minutes of this Harry had enough.  
  
He pulled open the gate slowly as not to make any noise. He lit his wand and entered the dark graveyard.  
  
If graveyards were supposed to give off the feeling of being "spooky" than this one fulfilled the requirement and then some. Headstones loomed out at Harry at every turn, and the statues did look like demons in the dark, foggy night.  
  
He walked a little faster; his memories of the last time he was in a graveyard were coming back again. He forced himself to only think of Sirius. As soon as he found Sirius he would be safe. Nothing could hurt him as long as Sirius was with him. "Sirius, Sirius, Sirius," he took to chanting very, very softly. He kept the wand light in front of him, chanting all the while, trying to ward off the strange, unnerving quietness of the place. He walked faster, chanting.  
  
"You don't listen to me much do you?"  
  
Harry nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden sound. He spun around to find himself staring up at Sirius's smirking face.  
  
"Of course I don't," he said calmly although his heart was still going a mile a minute. "If I did then I wouldn't be Harry, would I?"  
  
"Of course not," Sirius said, giving Harry's shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Come on, there's a patch of freshly dug graves over there. I think we're close to finding her."  
  
Harry nodded, grateful for the warm pressure on his shoulder.  
  
"Let's go before she gets away again," Sirius said, jerking his head toward a row of graves.  
  
Harry nodded, and followed his godfather.  
  
Through row after endless row of headstones they walked. Harry remained extremely close to Sirius at all times. When they came upon a patch of freshly dug graves. He heard Sirius whisper a spell and then hold his wand over each grave for a few seconds before moving on to the next.  
  
"I just don't get it," Sirius said after some time. "None of these graves have her body in them." But these words were lost on Harry. The only thing that Harry noticed at that moment was a dark robed figure walking two rows away from them. The figure appeared to be holding something in his hands and chanting over it in a strange language.  
  
Harry's scar suddenly began to twinge with a slight, incessant pain as the figure drew closer. The figure stopped abruptly right in front of Harry. It turned, its giant black hood obscuring his face but not its eyes. Icy blue and bloodshot it looked like blood on water .  
  
"Sirius!"  
  
"What?" Sirius asked spinning around to see his godson's entire body trembling in pain. Immediately he put one arm around his godson's waist pulling him close and the other was rubbing his shoulder. "What is it Harry? What do you see?"  
  
"There!" Harry pointed ahead, shuddering. "The man, chanting."  
  
Sirius looked up and tightened his grip around Harry's waist. "Harry, easy. Whatever it is it must be gone. I don't see anything."  
  
Harry swung back around, looking back and forth wildly. He could still hear the faint chanting but the cloaked man was nowhere to be found. He looked back up at Sirius earnestly.  
  
Sirius merely shrugged. "Let's get out of here," he said, letting go of Harry's waist. "The fog is lifting."  
  
Harry nodded thankfully. He scar stung dully as he followed Sirius out of the graveyard.  
  
"Well, tonight was fun," Sirius said as they ambled up High Street toward Hogwarts. Both bedraggled and slumped over from exhaustion.  
  
"Yeah, morgues and graveyard," Harry said, rubbing his eyes. "Never had more fun in my life."  
  
"You're cynical when you're sleepy did you know that?" Sirius said, pulling something out of his pocket. "Doughnut?"  
  
"Doughnut? Where did you get it?" Harry said astonished to see Sirius offering him a chocolate frosted doughnut.  
  
"That wizard, I wasn't an ex-con for nothing you know."  
  
"Very funny."  
  
"I know. So doughnut?"  
  
"Sirius, it's five AM, and we were just in a morgue and a graveyard. How can you eat?"  
  
"Easily," Sirius said. "I _did_ live off rats last year."  
  
"Ugh, don't remind me," Harry said thickly. He had never forgotten that his godfather had done that for him the previous year. He was thankful it was dark out so Sirius couldn't see his face. "Sorry. If it hadn't been for me you wouldn't have had to do that."  
  
"Could have been worse," Sirius added logically, "much worse."  
  
Harry nodded, kicking a small stone.  
  
"We're almost home and this bloody wild goose chase will be over," Sirius muttered as several owls flew overhead.  
  
Harry could only nod. Although he could not shake the feeling that the night had not just been a wild goose chase.  
  
"You know something," he said as the red early morning sun was cresting the mountains, "I don't think that Gladys Gudgeon's body just disappeared into thin air."  
  
"Maybe someone transfigured it?" Harry said through a yawn. "I mean Crouch did that to his father last year remember?"  
  
"Good theory, but that would leave a mark and Pomfery would have check for that before sending Nick to alert us."  
  
Harry shrugged his shoulders and said "Maybe she wasn't dead?"  
  
"No, she was dead as sure as you and I are alive Harry." Sirius shook his head before taking another bite out of the doughnut.  
  
"Okay so the facts are she's dead and her body is missing, so now what?" Harry asked tiredly taking his glasses off for a moment to rub his eyes.  
  
"I don't know, Harry. I just don't know." Sirius's eyes looked up as they approached Hogwarts.  
  
"Er, Sirius?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"I have to tell you something."  
  
Sirius who up until then had been busying himself with figuring out which part of the doughnut he wanted to bite next looked up sharply at Harry. "Yes?"  
  
Harry shrugged uneasily. "Did you hear me scream before?"  
  
"When we found the body, yes. Why do you ask?"  
  
"Because I didn't scream because of the body."  
  
"You didn't? Then why did you?"  
  
"Because of what was standing over her."  
  
Sirius stopped dead and looked Harry in the eyes. "Which was?"  
  
Harry's voice came out in a low raspy whisper as he said, "A werewolf."  
  
Sirius nodded, giving Harry a once over with his eyes making sure he was still in one piece.  
  
"It jumped at me," Harry explained. "I thought it was going to bite me . . . I could feel its breath and then right before it landed you came and it . . . it . . ."  
  
"It what?"  
  
Harry looked up at Sirius, asking him to believe him with his eyes. His large emeralds boring into Sirius's brown eyes for the fourth time that night (or early morning.)  
  
Sirius gave him a trusting look.  
  
Harry swallowed hard before whispering a single word, "Vanished." 


	13. A Long Awaited Chapter

*comes in, dodging flying vegetables* Hey, everyone! Miss me? By the tomatoes, I guess you'd like me to shut up and get on with the chapter, eh? May I first give a note? My muse went into a coma, leaving this on my hard- drive, I apologize if it seems to lack something but I promise that the next one will be fresh and much, much come faster.  
  
Sequel to Harry Potter and the Emerald Eye. (I suggest you read that first, but you don't have to, it's just a good idea.) Harry's in for quite a year when he starts seeing things that no one else can, is it a dream? Or is he really going crazy? Questions start arising like what did Voldemort do to his victim after he killed them? This has it all; mystery, insanity, a lot of Sirius and Remus, and everyone calls Harry a lunatic at least once! ;)  
  
A VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HAS KEPT UP WITH THIS STORY. I really do appreciate it! You guys are what have kept me going, even when I was about to give up. Thank you so very much!  
  
Disclaimer - This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I own the plot and a few original things. Elven itself all belongs to the master himself J. R. R. Tolkien.  
  
Chapter 13: A Long Awaited Chapter  
  
Harry was having a very odd dream. He was surrounded by graves that were made of, if he was not mistaken, donuts. Somewhere nearby there was the sound of chanting. Low and rhythmic. His hearing heightened, trying to discern it.  
  
"Mornie utúlië! Mornie utúlië!" the shapeless voice chanted.  
  
Harry felt the ground beneath him begin to quake, knocking him off balance. He fell, his head landing in front of a headstone. He looked up, and gasped. The chocolate frosting words that were carved into the headstone were not in English but in Elvish.  
  
BANG!  
  
Harry jumped. He blinked once or twice, fumbling for his glasses. He found them on the end table behind him. He put them on and looked around. He was on a red couch, and was covered up with a light blue blanket, but where was he? It was much too messy to ever be the common room or even his dorm room.  
  
He could hear faint voices in the next room.  
  
"I know I'm right."  
  
"But . . ."  
  
"I know it!" whoever was speaking slammed their fist down on something, and Harry knew instantly what had woken him.  
  
"But Sirius!"  
  
"Yeah, Moony?"  
  
"Sirius, maybe this is part of their plan. It just doesn't make any sense- in which case it makes perfect sense."  
  
"Perfect sense is right! I mean didn't you feel it too last night?"  
  
"Of course I did. I am a werewolf you know." Lupin said indignantly.  
  
"Along with that, Harry said he saw a wolf."  
  
"A wolf?" Lupin said dubiously.  
  
"Yes. That's why he screamed. He said it was coming at him." Sirius answered.  
  
"Er, Sirius . . ."  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"You know that Harry has been hallucinating quite a bit lately and . . ."  
  
"What has that got to do with anything?" Sirius replied a bit louder than he intended. He quickly looked to the adjoining room door in fear he might have an awaken Harry in the next room.  
  
Harry lied back down just in the nick of time.  
  
"It has quite a lot to do with it Padfoot," Lupin said delicately, getting Sirius's attention again.  
  
"Last night, I didn't pick up any wolf scent whatsoever. Werewolf or Muggle."  
  
"So what exactly are you trying to say Moony?" Sirius whispered as he opened the door to peek inside. He breathed an inward sigh of relief as he saw Harry was still asleep.  
  
"Er . . . ah . . . I think Harry might be going a little . . . umm . . . batty?"  
  
"Not you too, Moony. First Snape, now you. Look, I say there has to be some sort of reason. I mean his dreams where his scar hurts are indicators for Voldemort right?" Sirius said crossing back over to his friend.  
  
"So can't these as you call them hallucinations be something like that?" Sirius asked desperately. He didn't want to believe that his godson was going batty.  
  
"I said _think_ Sirius, not I believe with all my heart and soul. And don't look at me like that, for all we know it could be something else. Perhaps you're right. I just know that there was no wolf scent."  
  
"All right. Then what jumped out at him Moony. We all heard that scream. He genuinely saw something. I know he did. I heard all kinds of screams in Azkaban. This was one of absolute and sheer terror." Sirius said shaking his head. "I just don't know what to think anymore." he added softly.  
  
Lupin sighed heavily. "I don't know either Sirius. I just don't."  
  
Harry swallowed hard in the next room. Add another one to the list, he thought bitterly. Rumors of what he had seen during the Christmas break had been circulating lately, and whispers of "Potter's off his rocker" was beginning to follow him. He bit his lip in thought.  
  
"I'm going to go check on him," he heard Sirius say just in time to pull his glasses off and the blanket back over him.  
  
Sirius came into the room and saw his godson sleeping or at least what he thought was sleeping. He walked over to the couch and fixed the covers around his godson. Then he looked up at the ceiling and said softly "James, I hope you find this amusing up there, but could you stop your laugh-a-thon for one minute because I need some guidance here." He looked at Harry before his eyes went back to the ceiling. "I know I'm not the greatest at this parenting gig, but I . . . I want to be. I really want to. It's just . . . just . . . just I'm talking to a ceiling." Sirius plopped down in a chair, running a hand through his hand. "He's not in the ceiling Black, the stone isn't going to talk back to you . . .and Remus thinks Harry is off, geez . . ."  
  
Harry cracked an eye open and squinted. He watched as Sirius's blurry form rubbing his eyes sleepily. He wondered if Sirius had gotten any sleep at all, he couldn't remember what had happened when they arrived back at the castle early that morning. For what he could tell, and it wasn't very much, Sirius looked as if he hadn't seen a bed in a good 48 hours.  
  
"Hey Sleeping Beauty awakens."  
  
Harry smiled blearily. "Morning Sirius, I think." he said sitting up and fumbling around for his glasses.  
  
"Late afternoon is more like it," Sirius said with a smile.  
  
"Did you sleep at all?" Harry said finally locating his glasses and put them on his face.  
  
"My brain wouldn't let me. I've been cursing it since noon."  
  
"Noon yesterday?" Harry questioned. He couldn't believe Sirius was still standing and coherent. But then again he couldn't believe a lot of what was going on in his life.  
  
"Noon today," Sirius corrected.  
  
Harry just looked at him like he had grown a second head "What did I just miss?"  
  
"You literally slept the day away."  
  
Harry just groaned as he thought aloud "They are gonna kill me."  
  
"Who is?"  
  
"Ron and Hermione. They must be worried when I didn't turn up today. Probably think I went off and got myself in loads of trouble without them."  
  
"No need to worry, Professor Dumbledore knows that you were asleep. You got out of classes today," Sirius said.  
  
"Really? Can I go back to sleep then?" He really didn't want to face anyone especially after the conversation that he had overheard the night before. It was also bound to be known that he had seen something the night before.  
  
"Sure," Sirius said, stretching his arms over his head. "If that's what you want to do."  
  
"Yeah, I do." said Harry flopping down on Sirius's bed "Unless you want to talk or something" he added.  
  
"Well, off my bed and back on the couch where you belong is always a good conversation starter," Sirius grinned playfully.  
  
"Haha," Harry shot back. "Fine, I'll go to the couch if you really want me to. Besides that is where loons belong isn't it? The padded places."  
  
"Yeah, Harry you're as loony as they come. You refused a perfectly good donut after a tiny trip to the morgue," Sirius said cockily. "Never met a crazier frood in my life."  
  
Harry just looked at him. "Always thinking of food aren't you?"  
  
"Not food, _frood_," Sirius repeated.  
  
"Frood? Is that a word in Elven I haven't learned yet?" Harry asked quizzically.  
  
Sirius laughed. "No, no, it's just slang for an amazingly all together guy."  
  
"Why don't I quite believe you?" Harry said quietly.  
  
"You shouldn't."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Because I haven't slept in thirty-six hours and my sanity level is at an all time low."  
  
"Really? " Harry grinned deviously.  
  
"Don't even think about it."  
  
"I wasn't."  
  
"Liar."  
  
"Sirius!"  
  
Sirius leaned forward. "Look into my eyes and say that."  
  
Harry raised his head to confront Sirius's unnerving eyes. He opened his mouth and turned away laughing.  
  
Sirius leaned back, placing his hands behind his head with a satisfied smirk.  
  
"I liked that."  
  
Harry looked up. "Liked what?"  
  
"That," Sirius said as though it was obvious.  
  
Harry's expression remained blank.  
  
"You, laughing. You should do it more."  
  
All signs of happiness left Harry's face. "Well," he said his voice sullen. "There's not much to laugh about is there?"  
  
His godfather sighed, shaking his head. "No there isn't. But right now things can go either way. And you stand at a crossroads. You decide your road by how you act. You can be serious all the time but it's a drop-dead dull way to live, and we know which way things will go if you do that. Or you can have a little fun every now and then and forget about your worries for awhile, and you also know which way things will go for you if you do that."  
  
Harry nodded, working his way through his godfather's words.  
  
"Sirius?" he asked after a minute. "Can I ask you something?"  
  
"Sure, shoot."  
  
"It's completely hypothetical, but let's say that two people you can't see your life without after you got to know them say things about you. What they say is not meant to be hurtful but it is. Do you tell them or do you just shrug it off?"  
  
Sirius rubbed his forehead before answering. "That depends. If it's something really important you should tell, you know like if it was life threatening, you know like the stuff you hear about in school. But if it's just something that you can shrug off than I wouldn't say so. Why turn molehills into mountains?" He looked Harry up and down. "Everything is fine with Ron and Hermione, right?"  
  
Harry gave him a questioning look. "Oh! Nothing, nothing at all, I said it was hypothetical didn't I?"  
  
"Aye, you did."  
  
Inside Harry's mind a small but fierce battle was taking place. Millions of questions were shouting to be heard above the others. Should he tell Sirius about what he overheard? He struck that one down. Hadn't his godfather just lectured him about eavesdropping last night? The last thing he needed was another lecture, especially a Sirius one. He looked up as he felt Sirius run a hand through his hair.  
  
Sirius shot him an easy grin. "I didn't mean to doubt your word."  
  
"I know." Harry looked away again. His mind willed him to just come out and say it. Just say it! Sirius isn't going to strike you, he's not like that.  
  
No, he shot back. Sirius was angry with me last night. I don't want him angry at me ever again.  
  
He'll understand. He cares for you more than anyone else in the world.  
  
Really?  
  
Yeah, even if you _are_ a little batty in the head.  
  
Oh bugger off, will you?  
  
"Sickle for your thoughts."  
  
Harry raised his head. "Nothing, it's just . . . never mind."  
  
"Harry."  
  
Harry sighed. "I was just wondering why you're so keen to talk even though you haven't slept in thirty-seven hours."  
  
"That's very simple to explain . . ."  
  
"Oh, is it?"  
  
"Yes," said Sirius. "The reason is that I'm a member of the triple I."  
  
"The what?"  
  
"Insane Insomniacs' Institution. And not only am I a card carrying member but I'm also the founder." He flashed a cheesy smile, waving an imaginary card before completely cracking up.  
  
Harry watched amused as his normally composed godfather toppled off his chair, rolling back and forth across the floor cackling at his own terrible joke.  
  
"Did anyone tell you that you need help more than I do?" Harry asked as he cracked a smile. Sirius's laughter could be contagious  
  
"I don't need help I need sleep, "cried Sirius covering his face with his hands, "I need it BAD!" He said, rolling back and forth howling. "Sleep is a GOOD thing! A very good thing! Sleep is the best!" He turned on his side, pounding the floor with his fist. "This is me when I don't get enough sleep! I babble pointlessly while cracking up!"  
  
Harry just started full out laughing at this sight. "Yep, attention Loony Bin shoppers, the Bin is open. Potter and Black party of two right this way."  
  
"On sale for twelve galleons and seven sickles," Sirius added. "A real bargain."  
  
"Hey!" Harry cried indignantly. "That's kind of cheap for the both of us, wouldn't you say?"  
  
"Lack of sleep decreased our value," Sirius said, standing up. He yawned, shaking his head in a doggish way. "I'm sure I'm setting a great example right now."  
  
"Because you're currently on a sugar high and cracking up?"  
  
Sirius rolled his eyes, flopping down next to Harry on the bed. "How come it sounds worse when you say it?"  
  
"Because he's right?"  
  
"Professor," Sirius jumped, compulsively straightening his T-shirt (which appropriately had "A Hard Day's Night" printed in black lettering across the chest) as he addressed Dumbledore.  
  
Dumbledore looked the pair up and down. "Well rested I trust Harry?"  
  
Harry nodded, suddenly very conscious that he was in his boxers.  
  
"Find anything?" Sirius asked, tossing Harry a blanket.  
  
"I'm afraid not. Although a Mr. Bennington sent me an owl this morning asking if I had seen a pair of "loons" running around, one calling himself Detective White, the other simply "his assistant," said the mage lightly. "Otherwise I do believe that Davey's sister has given us the slip."  
  
"I guess Fudge wasn't much help, if that owl was for him."  
  
"It was," answered Dumbledore. "And no, he wasn't. Only restated what we already knew."  
  
"That being?"  
  
"Ms. Gudgeon's body has been missing for a year, and the surrounding areas will be searched." Dumbledore shook his head sadly. "They are still wary of my warnings."  
  
"Things don't change, do they?"  
  
"I'm afraid not Sirius."  
  
Harry watched his godfather shrug feebly.  
  
"You will keep me informed," he said, running a hand through his hair again.  
  
"I will," promised the Headmaster. He turned to Harry, the twinkle had returned, adding, "And I trust to see you _both_ in classes again tomorrow."  
  
Harry nodded, replying, "Yes, sir" over Sirius's groan.  
  
Dumbledore chuckled.  
  
"No rest for the weary Har'," Sirius said, getting to his feet. "I'll see you out Albus." The two left the room, and Harry could head the sound of low whispering but could not make anything out.  
  
~~  
  
The following day the news of Harry's adventures had circulated throughout the school. Harry struggled through his classes, trying desperately to avoid the seething looks from his fellows. "Figures this would happen to Potter, everything exciting happens to him." Harry shrugged it off. He doubted half of them wanted to face Voldemort on a regular basis. But the whispers became more frequent. The tales grew, and the taunts started to sting.  
  
"It's all rubbish," Hermione said briskly one night while doing homework in the common room. Athena was reading a pint-sized copy of Hogwarts: A History, Thor was trying to steal it from her.  
  
"Easy for you to say," grumbled Harry. "They're not about you."  
  
"True, but don't you think they effect us? We don't like it either. Ron's serving detention for punching Crabbe on you behalf right now."  
  
"And speaking of Ron," Harry added as the red-head stomped into the room, some sort of jiggling substance bedecking his robes.  
  
"That little son of a-" "Ron?" Hermione said mildly. "Well, he is." "You had Snape then?" Harry guessed.  
  
Ron raised an eyebrow. "No, Gudgeon. Snape's positively giddy over this whole thing. He's started a pool according to Lupin. How Many Days until Potter is Expelled, I think he said was the name."  
  
Harry buried his face in his arms.  
  
"It isn't any worse than our second year, Harry," Hermione tried. "And we lived through that just fine."  
  
"True," Harry said raising his head. He felt something tugging on his hair. Reached up to free whatever it was, his hand brushed something cold and wet. "Apollo!"  
  
"I think he's found a new chew toy, mate," Ron laughed. "Your hair."  
  
~*~  
  
As the last rays of twilight faded from the sky, Katie called the Quidditch team in. She lined them up in height order, pacing in front of them. "Well," she said finally. "I've noticed that some of us have been lacking in our . . . seriousness about the game." "Meaning that?" Fred prompted. Katie went to him, bringing her face close to his. She poked his belly sharply. It jiggled a little. "You should cut back on the canary creams, Weasley," she snapped, eyes flashing. "As should we are. We were never like this when Wood was here. There's so much flab on this team, it's pathetic." Spinning on a heel, she stomped to wear the box of Quidditch balls stood; only the Quaffle was out. Katie picked it up. "So before we even touch this," she tossed the large red ball. "We will run this." She pointed to the long thin white line that ran around the perimeter of the huge pitch. "Six times." Harry and Longo traded apprehensive looks. ~*~  
  
The next morning the Great Hall was louder than usual when a very sore Harry, a brisk-looking Hermione and a yawning Ron arrived. Most of the students had forgotten their breakfast and were crowding around a large announcement. "Please let it say that Snape's retiring," Ron prayed as they fought their way through the throng. "Doubtful," Harry said, elbowing past a Hufflepuff. "Oh, no," Hermione groaned, the first to arrive at the notice. "They're starting another dueling club." Ron's eyes widened as a Ravenclaw pointed out, "Well, at least this one we'll see an actual duel." "Between whom?" he asked. "Professors Snape and Black!" 


	14. Rivalries

Hello everyone! By now the majority of you have obtained and finished the OOTP, and has learned the . . .  
  
Sirius: Bloody horrible!  
  
I was going to say distressing—but that works as well—news. I learned it in a rather unfortunate way, in less than three hours of having and reading six chapters into the book, my friend and I were trying to escape her sister so we could read in peace and my book fell open to a very bad page. Like a magnet my eyes were drawn to the character's name and the words "was a . . ." Needless to say I was a little . . . cut-up about the death, especially when I learned the cause and heard Dumbledore's explanation.  
  
Sirius: *grins* Hem-hem!  
  
All right, I brawled like a baby, and hugged my muse, making him promise never to leave me. ;) Heheh, I was flustered, I didn't expect her to do that, but I understand why. She had to do it so that Harry would understand what it is to lose someone who you care about so deeply. Keep in mind that he does not remember his parents. I'd like to point out the passage in which JK says that every time Harry called for this person, he or she did not hesitate to answer him, to come to him, this person cared for him the most. Knowing that he was loved to that degree will strengthen Harry, his ability to love and to feel emotion is what makes him stronger than Voldemort. Bellatrix said that one must put feeling into the Unforgivables to cast them, and right now Harry has enough feeling to cast all three at once. And in all honestly I enjoyed the book; JK was at her personal best. She has honed her skills and taken us to many different places, all while portraying Harry accurately. He is a teenager and teenagers are, frankly, moody brats. I'm a teen and I know I can be that way at times; I can go off on my friends, especially if I think that I am being left out of something big. I want to be invovled and I dislike it when adults keep things from me based on my age, as all those who teens do. That was Harry in this book, he wanted to help out, he wanted to included, but he was still the curious boy who has to know things despite what he is told. He was also impulsive, but aren't we all? When we think something terrible has happened, we try the most direct way we know of checking and if that fails, we lose our head and run right off to try and save whomever maybe in danger. Hence the whole fiasco that led to a fandom depression of sorts. But! Moving on: yes JK did leave plot holes but she did it with a purpose. Book Five was, in essence, one big cliff hanger that is still waiting to be latched onto by Books Six and Seven. But until then, I'm continuing this in my own little universe as I have been all along. Trust me, guys; you are in for a wild ride.  
  
Sirius: So, strap yourselves in and hang on!  
  
Sequel to Harry Potter and the Emerald Eye. (I suggest you read that first, but you don't have to, it's just a good idea.) Harry's in for quite a year when he starts seeing things that no one else can, is it a dream? Or is he really going crazy? Questions start arising like what did Voldemort do to his victim after he killed them? This has it all; mystery, insanity, a lot of Sirius and Remus, and everyone calls Harry a lunatic at least once! ;)  
  
Disclaimer - This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I own the plot and a few original things. Elven itself all belongs to the master himself J. R. R. Tolkien.  
  
Chapter 14: Rivalries  
  
"W-What?!" stammered Harry  
  
"You heard me, Snape and Black are going to duel each other. Dumbledore said so. It's going to be a blood bath!"  
  
Harry felt his insides congeal. In their youth, Sirius and Snape had been dire enemies. They loathed each other so much that because of something Snape had said, it had provoked his godfather enough to tell the 'greasy git' how the find out where Lupin went every month. All he had to do was prod the knot of the Wholloping Willow. Snape had done as Sirius instructed, and found himself nose-to-nose with a bloodthirsty werewolf. If it had not been for Harry's father, James, pulling Snape back in the nick of time, Harry shuddered to think of the consequences. Even though the previous year the two professors had agreed to be civil to each other, he highly doubted that civility extended to a dueling platform.  
  
"Harry," Hermione said in a swift whisper. "You have to talk him out of it. You're the only one he listens to."  
  
"Me?" snapped Harry. "Sirius doesn't listen to me . . ."  
  
Hermione snorted.  
  
"All the time," he added. "Besides, he wouldn't really do anything to hurt Snape, especially in front of the majority of Hogwarts . . . would he?"  
  
Ron laughed mirthlessly as they sat down to breakfast. "Snape would mangle Sirius no matter the consequences. And Sirius . . . er, he'd probably do the same, mate."  
  
"Of course he would, Ronnikinns," sniggered Fred, coming up behind them. "Why didn't you tell us, Harry?"  
  
"Tell you what?"  
  
"That Professor Black was an Auror," said his twin.  
  
"H-H-He was?" stuttered Harry, dumbfounded.  
  
"One of the best," grinned George, stealing Harry's toast. "'E's s'pposed to 'ave some kinda record, 'ccording to McGonagall," he said in- between bites.  
"You didn't know?" gasped Hermione.  
  
"No, he never told me," Harry said, moving his plate out of George's reach.  
  
"Honestly, Harry! Don't you remember when Snape said that Sirius was capable of murder at sixteen?"  
  
"I thought that was about the thing with Lupin," interjected Ron whose plate was being ravaged by Fred.  
  
"Did you learn anything from Moody last year," Hermione said, shooting Ron as sharp look. "Aurors have to be extremely clever and have more magic than the average. Sirius, obviously, fits those qualifications or he wouldn't be an Animagus."  
  
"Then how come he didn't tell me?" Harry snapped, crossly. Why did everyone else know everything but him?  
  
"He probably had his reasons," said Ron, glancing up at the High Table.  
  
Harry followed his gaze. Sirius wasn't there. He narrowed his eyes.  
  
"Where _is_ he?" he demanded, still glaring at the empty seat.  
  
"Probably getting ready to turn Snape into—"  
  
"Thanks, Fred," said Hermione sharply, "but I doubt Sirius would go that far, especially if _Harry_ . . ."  
  
"All right! All right! I'll talk to him during class today," Harry agreed, feeling as if a lead weight had settled itself right in the pit of his stomach.  
  
~*~ "All right," Harry said under his breath, his eyes scanning the pasture for another steaming batch of Ashwinder eggs. The large brilliantly red-colored eggs gave off an intense heat that the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw fifth-years highly appreciated during their double Care of Magical Creatures class that afternoon; their final class for the day.  
  
Even though the snow had been scarce of late, the wind had remained razor sharp. It slipped through the cracks between their clothing piles, snapping at their skin until it was effectively flushed. The rush of heat that came from the eggs was enough to make the teenagers shrug off their heavy cloaks before placing a freezing charm on the eggs. The ground around them was even steaming, making Harry feel as if he was in a sauna.  
  
He examined one egg, its glittering oblong surface was smooth and supple. His glasses fogged up from the steam. Sighing, he cast a freezing charm and tossed it in the large barrel. Of course, he thought ruefully as he cleaned his lenses, their constant companions did not seem affected by either the heat or the cold. The Pookas were gamboling about, barking and chasing after each other. Only Hermione's stayed sitting at her mistress's feet.  
  
Shaking his head, he heard Sirius call for attention again.  
  
"Thanks for your help today," he said, "I'm sure Madam Pomfrey will be most appreciative of the eggs. And, by the way, for homework write an essay on the many uses of Ashwinder eggs for next class. Dismissed."  
  
Harry grinned, grabbing his cloak and bag. If he was ever going to confront Sirius, it was going to be now. Everyone would be rushing back to the castle for dinner so he wouldn't have to worry about someone overhearing them.  
  
"Professor," he said, looking up. His heart plummeted down to his heels. Sirius was surrounded by the rest of the class, all clamoring to know more about the Dueling Demonstration.  
  
"We'll never get to speak with him," muttered Hermione, coming up alongside him.  
  
"Might as well try," said Ron, pushing his way into the eager group.  
  
Harry and Hermione followed.  
  
"Tonight, tonight, you'll see it tonight," Sirius said loudly over the chattering. "Now get up to the Great Hall before you miss dinner. Go!"  
  
Reluctantly, the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors shuffled towards the castle. Harry hung back, nodding to Ron and Hermione.  
  
"That goes for you three as well," Remus added, eying them sternly.  
  
"I'll take care of it, don't worry. Save me something to eat," Harry said as they caught up with the rest of the class.  
  
"All right," Hermione agreed, reluctant as if she knew that Harry's resolve to speak with his godfather was already weakening. "But make sure that you get through to him, Harry."  
  
"I swear it, see you in a bit," Harry promised, doubling back before she could say anything else. He slowed down as he approached Sirius, his legs growing heavy.  
  
You can do this, he told himself. Since when have you been afraid of him? This is Sirius. Good, old, laugh-a-minute Sirius.  
  
Who can duel your arm off, added the ever-present voice in the back of his head.  
  
He probably didn't want to scare me, Harry thought, remembering how his godfather looked in the Shrieking Shack nearly two years ago. His face twisted in menacing fury, wand raised, teeth gritted in determination. That night he had been prepared to kill, and it had been only Harry whose words that had prevented him.  
  
So Hermione was right, Sirius _did_ listen to him. Reminding himself that he could talk to Sirius about anything, Harry shouted, "Professor! Could I have word?"  
  
"Maybe," Sirius replied, picking up the covers for the barrels. "Should I give him a word, Moony?"  
  
"I think it would be suitable considering he does seem to have something on his mind," said Lupin, playing along.  
  
"Yeah, I do," Harry said. "About tonight, the demonstration. I was wondering . . ."  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"Er, I was just thinking . . ." For some odd reason Harry's felt as though he had forgotten how to transfer all intelligent thoughts from his brain to the general public via his mouth. "I . . . er . . . what I mean to say," he continued to fumble until he went for saying the first thing that came to mind. "How come you never told me you were an Auror?"  
  
Sirius raised an eyebrow, trading an inscrutable look with Lupin.  
  
"Well?" Harry prompted, his ability to verbalize returning.  
  
"You never asked," said Sirius simply, bending down to grab another cover. "And that is why you stayed back?"  
  
Dissatisfied with the answer, Harry was surprised to find himself grinning sheepishly. "Curiosity killed the Seeker, you know."  
  
"So I've heard." Sirius glanced up at Harry, his gaze steely. "So, I'll see you tonight then."  
  
"Yeah, wouldn't miss it," Harry muttered, turning to leave.  
  
"Oh, and Harry?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Don't worry about it," said Sirius knowingly. ~*~  
  
The four house tables had been pushed back after dinner that night, and a platform had been erected much like it had been in Harry's second year with two smaller raised platforms had been set at opposite ends. A shiver ran down his spine. Last time he had not been sure what to expect, but now, he wished he was a clueless twelve-year-old again.  
  
"Did you speak with him?" Hermione asked for the umpteenth time since Harry had arrived at dinner looking vaguely relieved.  
  
"Yes," Harry hissed. "He said not to worry."  
  
"And you _believed_ him?"  
  
"I did, but thanks to you now I don't!" he snapped.  
  
Hermione mumbled something under her breath that sounded vaguely like "Stupid boys."  
  
"While you two were bickering look who showed up," Ron said, nudging Harry in the ribs.  
  
Sitting at the Head Table, along with several other professors and Dumbledore was, with his electric blue eye swirling in its socket, Mad-Eye Moody.  
  
"Wonder why he's here," Harry whispered.  
  
"Shush, it's starting!"  
  
Indeed it was. Torches around the room blew out, save the ones closest to the platform and the glittering stars from the ceiling above. A hush fell upon the room.  
  
With a crack! Snape appeared on the left raised platform, clad in his traditional high-collared robes. He drew his wand, poised for Sirius's appearance.  
  
Sirius appeared soundlessly, arms at his sides, his wand clutched in his right hand. He was also clothed in the neutral shade of black.  
  
Both opponents inclined their heads, acknowledging one another.  
  
Not a sound could be heard in the Great Hall. Tension has seeped under the doors, filling the air. No one even dared to breathe.  
  
Slowly, eyes lock upon one another, Snape and Sirius raised their wands.  
  
Harry's throat went dry, his heart pounding in his ears. His godfather's name was repeating over and over in his head until . . .  
  
BANG!  
  
A fury of sound and color erupted. Spells shot through the air, multi- colored daggers, blinding the spectators. Blue. Red. Green. Purple. Yellow. Harry's eyes darted frantically, trying to the shift through the sparks to find Sirius. Two identical black shapes dodged, jumped, blocked, their wands only blurs. Madly, they fought. Lost in the darkness one moment, highlighted by spells the next.  
  
No one could tell what was happening; half were shouting "Snape," the other "Black." Fractured yells came from all sides.  
  
"Snape's got him!"  
  
"No, dodge it!"  
  
"Did you just see that!"  
  
"Holy SHIT!"  
  
The room was engulfed in a pure blinding light.  
  
When Harry opened his eyes, the light had cleared.  
  
Three-fourths of the Great Hall filled with cheers, realizing who had won.  
  
On top of the platform, Severus Snape lay motionless from the neck down, pinned under the foot of a smirking Sirius Black.  
  
"All right, all right," Sirius shouted after a minute, tucking his wand behind his ear. "Settle down!"  
  
He was rewarded with immediate silence.  
  
"Obviously, you liked that," he continued, his voice reverberating throughout the Hall. He took his foot off of Snape's chest. He revived the Potions Master's body, offering to help him up.  
  
Snape stood on his own. There was a faint trickle of blood from his temple.  
  
Harry could have sworn Sirius mouthed 'suit yourself' before turning back to the crowd.  
  
"He looks happy," Ron mutter, gesturing to Snape.  
  
"That," Sirius said, "is exactly what an actual Wizard's Duel is like. It is not slow and deliberate like those practiced on the local commercial circuit. It is a fast-paced, intense, mind-blowing experience that challenges a witch or wizard's reflexes, presence of mind, and their ability to not only cast but to deflect spells simultaneously. In short, it is a hell-ride."  
  
Sirius tugged his wand out from behind his ear, saying, "So, why don't Professor Snape and I show you some of the basics, and then some of you can come up here and give it a go?"  
  
Affirmative responses came from all directions.  
  
Grinning, Sirius faced Snape.  
  
"Shall we show them how to deflect and cast?"  
  
"It's your choice," Snape replied, the corner of his mouth curling nastily.  
  
Harry watched as Sirius put more distance between himself and Snape. When his back was turned, Snape raised his wand, shooting a red jet of light at Sirius.  
  
Before a shout could leave Harry's lips, Sirius whirled around, obliterating the spell.  
  
"Brilliant idea to show them that, Snape!" Sirius said, unfazed. "Rule number one of Dueling is Never Turn Your Back on Your Enemy. For a moment there, I thought Professor Snape was going to be gentlemanly, and let me get away with it." He laughed. "Thank goodness, you came to your senses, Severus."  
  
"Serves you right!" Hermione snickered at the astonished expression on Snape's face. "Even if he was your rival in school, you still shouldn't cast a spell when someone's back is turned."  
  
"Oh, yes, and Death Eater are so courteous as to observe to nicer rules of conduct," Ron said in an undertone.  
  
" –So," Sirius said, regaining their attention, "since it is virtually impossible to block and re-direct every spell cast at you without exhausting yourself, one has to sidestep a few deathtraps so to speak."  
  
Snape raised his wand again, letting loose another wind-tunnel of curses at Sirius.  
  
This time, however, Sirius did not draw his wand once. Instead, he went into a series of well-timed somersaults, avoiding each stream of power easily.  
  
He landed straight up on his feet, wand back behind his ear.  
  
Snape's demeanor seemed to be growing darker with each failed attempt at maiming Sirius.  
  
"Sadly, not all of us have your flare for the dramatic, Black," he sneered. "Those that lack this particular talent should intensify their pursuits in such areas as stealth and wide range deflection spells."  
  
Sirius backed away from Snape, anticipating a hex.  
  
Snape raised his wand, wielding it like a whip above his head. It issued a long ribbon of blue flame. It twisted free, speeding towards Sirius.  
  
The taller man did not move; he let the flame wrap around him. He stared at it for a moment, as if amused, before the flame drew into itself and dissolved. He raised his own wand, shooting a green jet of light at Snape.  
  
Snape dropped to the platform floor, barely missing the spell. It came so close to him that his hair blew up. It slammed into the far wall with a resounding gong! before evaporating. He slowly rose to his feet, his eyes locked on Black's wand. He was twirling it in his fingers, explaining about how the simplest curse could be the most effective.  
  
A chill ran down Harry's spine.  
  
"Expelliarmis!"  
  
Sirius's wand went spinning out of his grasp, cuffing the back of his left shoulder. He crumbled to the floor like a rag-doll, grasping the shoulder. He watched his wand sailing through mid-air toward Snape's out-stretched hand.  
  
Then, it halted. The dark dogwood wand was suspended, rim-rod straight in the air, half-way between the two wizards.  
  
Snape jerked his wand up, trying to summon Sirius's to him. Nothing happened.  
  
Then something rather bizarre did.  
  
Snape's wand was jerked forcefully out of his hand and sped away in a blur. It came to rest with Sirius's own wand at Black's feet.  
  
A collective gasp rose from the spectators. Harry winced as Hermione's nails dug into his arm.  
  
"Oh my god," she breathed.  
  
Now, Sirius and Snape were both glaring at each other, looking murderous. Snape's teeth were bared. Sirius had rolled Snape's wand back to him with the toe of his boot, his own clutched in his hand. His eyes were narrowed into slits. He flicked his wand once. Twice. Thri—  
  
"My, my," Dumbledore's voice broke the spine-chilling silence, "look at the time. All of you should have been in bed long ago. Let us all thank our two esteemed Professors for their _interesting_ demonstration tonight."  
  
Only scattered applause came from the crowd.  
"Now it's off to bed, off to bed." Dumbledore waved them off as the torches re-lit and the doors opened.  
  
Students filed out, being very care not to turn their backs on either of the professors. Snape turned swiftly, storming out of the room. Sirius, on the other hand, went up to speak to Moody. He was still rubbing his should.  
  
Shrugging, Harry made to follow Dean and Seamus, but both Ron and Hermione pushed him forward.  
  
"What's coming on?" he demanded.  
  
"Didn't you just see what happened? Sirius performed wandless magic!" Ron said, breathlessly.  
  
"So?"  
  
"Harry, don't you realize what that means?" Hermione asked.  
  
"Obviously not, how about explaining it to me?"  
  
"Only a few wizards can do wandless magic of that degree!"  
  
"What degree?"  
  
"Cursing and hexing, mate," said Ron. "Simple summoning and levitating charms are one thing, but what Sirius did is a whole 'nother Quaffle. Plus, he did it in front of a crowd of people. It's harder to concentrate your power when it's being watched."  
  
Harry swallowed hard as they approached the High Table. Sirius had his back to them. Where the wand had struck his shoulder Sirius's robes were wet. Was he bleeding?  
  
"Seems like you have a fan club, Black," Moody growled.  
  
Sirius glanced over his shoulder. "Hey," he said, flashing a quick smile, "have fun tonight?"  
  
They nodded slowly.  
  
"Are you alright, Sir—Professor Black?" Hermione said, indicating his shoulder.  
  
Moody gave a guttural chuckle. "Black's Achilles' heel, missy," he said. "If you want to get him really pissed you go straight for it."  
  
"Thanks, Hermione," Sirius said softly, his face reddening. "I'll be fine, but I think it's time you three headed up. You have class tomorrow as it is."  
"Wait," Harry said suddenly, "what about that wandless magic?"  
  
The minute he said it Harry wished he could take it back. His godfather's face darkened, his eyes flashed. The subject was closed. Nodding, he turned to follow Ron and Hermione.  
  
The last thing Harry heard before he exited the Great Hall was Moody's hoarse voice saying:  
  
"Maybe you should distance yourself a bit from him, Black, with what's been happening lately. . . " 


End file.
